Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Indomitable Duelists
by GEROMONEY
Summary: Yu-Gi-Oh GX, with a few differences, some new fellas and a whole lotta duels, Academy style! Accepting Shadow Rider and Season 2 OCs, please PM me if interested! No cover for now, tablet broken. Mild future swearing may ensue.
1. Are you ready

**What's up everyone I'm Aqua and this is my first fanfic, as in the first one I ever posted online. If you read the preview its basically Yu-Gi-Oh GX with OCs! Hopefully this'll rock and you'll enjoy my OC's deck.**

**Oh yeah, extra note, Synchro and Xyz monsters are welcome in this Fanfic! So if you have an OC with an Xyz deck, then feel free to add it!**

**Discalimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. The original characters here are mine but the cards they use are not. The made up cards used by my OC are mine, but inspiration comes from are produced by Tatsukono Production.**

**Chapter One: Dark Horse**

"Carrie Robbins to duel field 2. Carrie Robbins to duel field 2." Came the monotonous voice that blared through the stadium.

In the crowd, a peach haired girl in a dark blue blazer, a cream yellow top and fuchsia skirt stood up, fixing her ponytail and bangs, adjusting her uniform's fuchsia tie and she eyed the fields with her blue eyes and she smiled, excited as her opportunity to duel came after waiting for a long time. She expected it to be early, considering her first name beginning with C, but she didn't mind as she got to see some awesome duels. Now it's her turn to shine and she was ready.

"Last call for all academy applicants, if you're not checked in for your exam, please do so now." She heard the PA say dully as she went down the stairs towards the duel field along the way she saw a duel between a student and a proctor.

The student wore an all-white uniform and had black hair that was nearly flushed back, a little to his left and a calm look in his eyes. He had 3200 lifepoints, a single monster and a facedown card waiting in the wings. While the proctor had two monsters in defense mode.

The proctor has 1800 lifepoints, no facedowns and two defense position monsters. "Alright new guy, you got two monsters staring you down. Do you A, throw in the towel. B, beg for mercy. Or C, run home to momma?" The proctor taunted but the boy didn't lose his focus.

"I'll go with D, none of the above!" He replied as the card flipped face up, showing a metal ring with some flames surrounding it.

"A trap?" The proctor asked.

"Exactly, you see, with Ring of Destruction I can destroy any monster on the field that's in attack mode and we both take damage equal to its attack points." He explained as the Ring appeared around the neck of his monster, a Vorse Raider, and caused it to explode, which took his lifepoints down a bit and the Proctor's lifepoints down to 0.

The crowd's response was a mix of shock, awe and excitement. "Clever move applicant." The proctor praised in a professional tone. "Welcome to the academy."

The boy in white bowed respectfully, or satirically. "Thank you O wise Proctor." He said before exiting the arena. Carrie smiled inwardly at the duel, unable to contain her excitement as she entered the arena.

Elsewhere in the stadium…

"Wow, that guy's pretty good, don't 'cha think Chazz?" A boy with a southern drawl asked.

"Guess the rumors about him being some kind of whiz kid were true huh?" Another asked to the same person. A boy with spikey black hair and an arrogant look. Like his other two companions, he wore a uniform of a blue coat. He sat in the middle, lounging as he eyed the duel field.

"He's a punk." Chazz replied. "We went to Duel Prep School for the past 3 years, we're ready for the Academy. These kids don't know what they're getting into, but they'll learn." He then smirked as he looked down on the others. "The hard way. The Chazz Princeton way."

Elsewhere again…

"Wow that last guy really tore it up!" A brunette said, his arms crossed over his black uniform and the red shirt underneath. He asked a short, blue haired applicant who was looking through his round glasses timidly.

"Yeah, Bastion Misawa. They said he has the highest score in the written exam of all us applicants!" The blue haired boy explained.

"Wow, I just barely passed." The brunette said in awe.

"Yeah me too…" His new friend replied, a little upset. "My name's Syrus by the way, nice to meet'cha. I kinda have a thing where I get test anxiety, I dunno how I won my match."

"So you're in!" The brunette suddenly patted Syrus' back hard and caused the smaller boy to jolt forward in surprise. "Congratulations! I'll be in too as soon as I win my duel!"

"Wait you haven't dueled yet?" Syrus interrupted worriedly.

"Nah!"

"Then you might have a problem, they just gave the last duel away to that girl." Syrus said and the brunette's eyes bugged out.

And back to the field…

"Don't get too riled up now, your written score's good and all, but can you walk the talk?" The proctor asked Carrie as he shuffled his deck.

"I'll do more than that sir." She replied as she set her bag down, took out her K.C second edition duel disk and slid it on, before grabbing her deck from a belt in the back and shuffled it. The two inserted their decks in their duel disks.

"Duel!" The two declared.

**Carrie: 4000  
Proctor: 4000**

"Oh, 4000 lifepoints?" Carrie asked and looked at her lifepoint counter and drew her five cards.

"Official school rules, for first years, the first semester uses 4000 lifepoints to adjust. Players can change it to 8000 lifepoints if they want to." The Proctor explained as he too drew his five cards. "Just giving you a feel of what it's like in the Academy." He made no further comment and Carrie took it as a gesture, drawing first.

"Then this won't take too long." She stated, scanning her hand. "I play, Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen. Since I control no monsters, I can special summon a fairy-type monster from my hand once per turn." Carrie explained as four pillars rose from the ground, each entangled by vines with red flowers along with a throne and two angel statues. A red curtain began to materialize between the pillars in the back. "I activate its effect to special summon my Seraphim Saber in attack mode!"

From the curtain, an angel in white robes rushed in. It had a halo on it, long blonde hair and white wings that tucked in while it launched itself to the middle of the field. On its arms were rings that were made of a transparent light blue material that glowed. She carried a sword in her right hand and the blade was made of the same transparent blue material. She spread her wings as she landed on the ground (4/**1600**/1500).

"Now for my normal summon, Seraphim Gardna in defense mode." Carrie announced as a circle shined next to Saber.

What came from it was a fully armored angel, with white and gold armor and small white wings and the glowing halo above it. It carried a shield which was white with gold outlines and covered most of its body. On some parts of the angel, specifically his head piece, some areas where orbs would be and the centers of the two circles on his shield, was the transparent blue material evident in Saber (4/1000/**2000**).

"Now the effect of my Saber and Gardna activates. Saber gains 300 attack points for every other fairy-type monster on the field." Carrie explained as the transparent materials glowed brighter on Saber and the same happened to Gardna's shield. "While Gardna gains 300 defense points for every other fairy-type monster on the field."

Saber; (4/1600-**1900**/1500)  
Gardna; (4/1000/2000-**2300**)

"I lay this card down and end my turn." Carrie said.

Elsewhere…

"Not bad, she set up a wall and nearly 2000 for offense." A blonde girl complimented as smart brown eyes watched the last duel. She wore a white tank top uniform with blue trimmings and a blue miniskirt. Her name is Alexis Rhodes and she leaned on the railings with her elbows.

"Seraphims are battering rams, and battering rams don't finish the fight." Another girl stated, she had short dark brown hair and a silver hairband and deep blue eyes. She wore a coat that looked like the blue uniforms some of the student wore but the colors were switched, it was instead white with blue trimmings. Along with it was a blue miniskirt like the first girl. Her name is Dannielle Jones-Cain, otherwise known as Danny, a senior in Duel Academy. She had her hands in her skirt's pockets.

"What will then?" The blonde asked.

"My guess, another set of monsters." This time, a tall boy with a coat similar to her, but the tail was sharp and in two and wore dark blue pants. He had long dark teal hair that extended behind the collar of his uniform and long hair that went down his back, a little over his shoulder. His name is Zane Truesdale, another senior in Duel Academy and the top student. His arms were crossed over his chest while he watched as the Proctor draw a card and summon it.

Charcoal Inpachi rose from the ground, the burnt out wooden golem steamed as it crossed it arms to protect the Proctor (1/100/**2100**). "Next I play Final Flame and Hinotama to deal 1100 points of damage to you!" The Proctor announced as two spell cards appeared and from both of it, they created different forms of fire.

A barrage of small fireballs came from Hinotama first and phased through Carrie as she took in the damage. Then the Final Flame card created a sea of flames that rushed towards Carrie, resulting in the peach haired girl to shield herself with her disk.

**Proctor: 4000  
Carrie: 2900**

The Proctor placed a card facedown and Carrie drew a card. "Like I said, no problem, because now I overlay the Level 4 Seraphim Saber and Seraphim Gardna to create the Overlay Network!" The crowd gasped as the two fairies turned to balls of yellow light and a yellow portal opened up on the ground, with the two balls of light spinning around it harmoniously. "Rise, Starliege Paladynamo!"

In a bright light, a knight in futuristic armor lowered onto the field, he carried a halberd, its blade was a transparent blue. He had a helmet with a purple visor and a steel mouth guard that hid his face, and spikes on his shoulder along with an extensions of his armor behind him. As he stood with a swordsman's stance, small stars burst outward away from him (4/**2000**/1000).

"Nice, Xyz monsters have been around for a while but we haven't seen many here." The Proctor complimented. "But… A warrior?" The Proctor asked.

"With a nifty effect, but first I activate my trap, Xyz Effect!" Carrie revealed her facedown, which depicted an explosion of sort with a black sphere in the middle. "When I Xyz summoned a monster, I can target 1 card on the field and destroy it! So your Charcoal Inpachi's gone!"

A black sphere appeared in front of the burnt monster and pulsed slowly, until it rose in speed and soon, it exploded, releasing white and purple energy that sucked in the Proctor's monster towards the black sphere. After it went it, the energy collapsed on itself and wrapped everything up nicely.

'_I'm guessing you have Call of the Haunted, meaning no matter what, I can injure him…' _Carrie thought. _'I have this in my hand anyway, so no biggie…' _She placed a card facedown and picked a card from her hand.

"I play the Dicephoon spell card! I get to roll a 6 sided die, and if the results 2, 3 and 4, I get to destroy a spell or trap card, if its 5, I have to destroy two spell or trap cards, if it's a 1 and 6, I take 1000 points of damage." A white die appeared above the field in the middle and rolled itself. Suddenly a circle flashed and in it, the number '5' flashed, making Carrie inwardly grin. "I destroy your facedown and my facedown Dummy Marker, meaning I get to draw a card since it's destroyed when it was set."

The Proctor could say nothing, as his facedown card, Negate Attack, flipped up and shattered to pixels while Carrie drew a card. She then looked at her knight. "Now Paladynamo, attack directly with Dynamic Slash!"

The Paladin nodded and jumped up high and after reaching his maximum height, at which point he moved his sword above his head, ready to strike down as he lowered and his blade shined bright blue. The empty field was perfect for the knight to attack and he struck down the Proctor.

**Proctor: 2000  
Carrie: 2900**

"Not bad, she used up all her resources but found some way to bring it back, even if it's just one card." Bastion noted as he sat down in front of Syrus and the brunette, taking off his duel disk.

"It's kinda like she expected that 5!" Syrus gasped.

"That was a pretty sweet comeback!" The brunette next to him smiled. "Oh yeah by the way, I'm Jaden! And Bastion that was a tight duel!"

Bastion silently looked up behind him. "Thank you." He said politely with the aloof nature of a genius.

"From the looks of things, your position of number 2 is on the line!" Jaden grinned as Bastion's eyes widened and looked at Jaden, confused. He wanted to ask the brunette what he meant but he looked so fixated on the duel that Bastion didn't bother as Carrie set her lone card facedown.

"I play Spellbook inside the Pot, letting us both draw 3 cards, but I'll also activate a Pot of Greed, letting me draw 5 in total!"

The Proctor played the two cards and the jars appeared, letting Carrie draw 3 and the Proctor draw 5, bringing his hand to a total of 7. "Now I summon Axe Raider in attack mode!" A muscular tan skinned man with gold and red armor along with a tattered undershirt and loin cloth appeared, carrying a golden axe with him (4/**1700**/1150). "Now I equip him with Axe of Despair, giving him a 1000 point boost!" The Golden axe was replaced by a strange axe made of either wood or flesh. Its blade was dark and silver tipped and gave the Raider a dark aura (4/1700-**2700**/1150).

"Attack her Paladynamo!" He commanded the Raider who gripped the axe, ready to strike.

"I activate Half or Nothing! So what'll it be? Half the attack or end the battle phase?" Carrie offered and grinned.

"I'll end my battle phase and end my turn…" The Proctor said.

'_Guess I'll have to use them after all!' _Carrie thought and she summoned a monster. "I summon Hajime Ichinose!" She announced and from the portal came a young girl, probably a teenager with grey eyes and brown hair decorated by a white bird hairpin. She wore a school uniform consisting of a white shirt, black overall dress that crossed at her back and a yellow tie, with some stockings and ankle length black boots. She had a cute duck backpack behind her and made scissors with her two hands as she appeared (2/**1000**/0).

"What can she do? She's practically harmless!" The Proctor wondered.

"For now she is, but since she's a required material to Synchro Summon a Gatchaman monster, I can special summon NOTE from my hand!"

This time in a flurry of winds, a small notebook, which was silver on top and changed colors in the middle with a black stylized g emblazoned on it appeared and began to float over the field. Hajime saw the note and silently squealed at the sight of it (3/**500**/300). "NOTE is a tuner monster with a handy special ability, by revealing a Synchro monster in my extra deck and selecting another Synchro material, I can change NOTE's level as I see fit, as long as the monster is a Gatchaman monster."

Back with the spectators…

"What are these Gatchaman?" Syrus asked.

"A series of Synchro monsters that gets stronger when their levels increase. Their effects are also affected by coin flips, so playing them is a risk." Bastion explained.

"And we're about to get a sneak peak!" Jaden exclaimed as Carrie brought out the Synchro monster.

"Not exactly." Bastion replied, confusing Jaden, who now realized that Carrie was showing their side the back of the card. The peach haired girl quickly returned it to the extra deck.

"But I don't get it, she can win this with that Paladynamo alone." Syrus looked to Bastion who was just as unsure of her tactic.

Back in the duel…

The Note had gained a white color now as its level increased. (3-**5**/500/300)"And now I tune my Level 4 NOTE with my Level 3 Hajime Ichinose to Synchro Summon, Gatchaman Hajime!"

Hajime grabbed the notebook and its white part turned transparent, a blue light glowing inside. Hajime held it close to her face as 3 stars appeared on her as she grew transparent and the note produced 5 green rings.

"_Protectors of the city, the white bird has arrived! Spread your wings and defend it wholeheartedly! Synchro summon! Bird Go, Gatchaman Hajime!"_

The green rings were soon filled with light and once it disappeared, the schoolgirl had changed completely. She was now a mecha like being, with pink 'hair' styled in pigtails with a golden decoration on it that looked like deer ears and a 'crown' made of neon blue tubes that ran down to her thighs. Her face was purple and framed at the chin with pink metal. Her armor was white on the top with the stylized g going from her torso to her midpoint which was pink with gold trimmings. It had a black, purple and white skirt with diamond shapes at the edges. Her legs now had shin guards and wheels at the back of each legs, making rollerblades. She held a similar pose to Hajime before she tuned with the Note then struck another pose, some parts of her lit up in neon blue and neon pink and her eyes which were blue shined the brightest (7/**2100**/1700).

"Close but no cigar." The Proctor tutted at Carrie in disdain. "Do something or else its adios Duel Academy."

"I know, I know! Now I activate Starliege Paladynamo's special ability! By detaching an Xyz material monster, I can reduce the attack of one of your monsters to 0!" One of the blue lights surrounding the Paladin went to the Axe Raider, weakening him and forcing him to his knee (4/2700-**0**/1150). "Hajime, attack with Blanc et Noir!"

"You triggered my-"

"Don't bother teach!" Carrie said quickly as the facedown's reversed side was covered in a net of electricity that negated its activation. "It's the effect of my NOTE, if it's used as a tuner for a Gatchaman monster, the monster is immune to card effects as long as the NOTE is in the Graveyard! And by returning it to the bottom of my deck, your card's immobile!" A card slid out of the Graveyard slot and Carrie grabbed it, placing it at the bottom of her deck.

"That's why she needed that Gatchaman monster." Syrus realized. "To protect her attack from card effects!"

"You think we'll get to see her monster's effect?" Jaden asked.

"I doubt it, she's about to finish this duel." Bastion said.

The Gatchaman pulled scissor blades holstered at the back of her boots and combined them to form a giant scissor and tested it, snipping the air before skating towards the Raider and jumped, swinging the scissors at the Raider which exploded on impact.

**Proctor: 0  
Carrie: 2900**

Carrie then began to move her graveyard's cards back to her main deck before putting it all in the deck holder and switched the duel disk off. "Thanks for the duel!" She said sincerely.

"That was great, you defended yourself pretty good." The Proctor praised. "Welcome to Duel Academy."

She smiled before walking off the arena back to her seat.

Elsewhere in the stadium…

"Looks like we have a pretty good crop this year!" A teacher said positively.

"Yes indeed." Another agreed as they closed their papers.

However, suddenly a security guard approached the teachers, specifically an effeminate man wearing a blue coat with pink ruffles and his blond hair kept in two parts, one part short and the rest of it was long, reaching his back. He also had silver earrings with teal orbs in a mood shaped pendant. He interrupted the teacher who was ready to leave back to Duel Academy. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but one last applicant has arrived to take his exam Mr. Crowler."

"Did you just call me 'Mr.'?" Crowler asked.

"Oh I'm sorry I'm new here Mrs. Crowler." The security guard said and rephrased his sentence.

"I have a PhD in dueling; I've earned the title 'Doctor' thank you." He said, keeping his tone calm but obviously irked at the security guard's mistake. "Now tell the truant that he'll just have to come back next year."

"Oh come on Dr. Crowler, we have time for one more!" A teacher said.

"Yes let's give this duelist a shot." Another much older teacher added and Crowler began to shake in place at his colleagues pleas.

"He was just a bit late that's all." Another said casually and that drove Crowler over the edge.

"Late is rude!" He snapped, causing the teachers and the guard of the front row to jolt back in surprise. "I have no time for slackers…" He said as he stood up and realized his phone was ringing and picked it up. "Hello? And who may I ask is-"

"_It's Sheppard."_ The caller interrupted.

"Ah Chancellor Shepard." Crowler's tone changed to a much more pleasant one.

"_Just calling to make sure everything's running smoothly Crowler." _Chancellor Sheppard began. _"Wouldn't want a repeat of what happened last year."_

Crowler twitched at that as Sheppard continued. _"When you cut a third of our student applicants for some ridiculous reason, what was it? Calling you Mister or Misses? Whatever. Just make sure everyone gets a fair shot!" _Sheppard explained, emphasis on everyone.

"Absolutely!" He replied, a scowl on his voice but he kept his tone pleasant

"_Well good carry on Crowler." _Sheppard replied, pleased and closed the call. "

Furry chinned windbag." He muttered. _'Doesn't he realize we have enough talentless flunkies at this academy? But he's the boss, if he wants to give everyone this rapscallion _(A/N: What the heck did he say here rim shanker? If anyone knows please tell me) _a duel… well fine…'_

He got up from his seat. "Pardon me gentlemen, I'll be right back." He declared and began to walk away to the stairs that lead to the elevators but the other teachers called out to him.

"But uh, who's gonna be the boy's dueling proctor and what exam deck should we use?" A teacher asked and held up a box of decks.

Crowler turned away from the box and smiled inwardly. "Leave that to me…"

"So this Gatchaman deck is her main deck…" Danny mused. "Kinda reminds me of your monsters Lex." The girl said, directing it to the blonde.

"This will definitely be an interesting year." Alexis stated and she looked at the third person of their group, who never moved his stance since the beginning of the duel.

"But how much interesting can we hold?" Danny then pointed to a part of the stadium made for teachers and specifically to Crowler, who was on the move towards the elevators and noticed the other teachers who haven't moved from their spots.

"Crowler's going to duel." Zane noted. "But who?"

"Who cares who, we're gonna see that monster of his." Danny smirked.

Now back to Carrie, who walked up the stairs, she heard an announcement made by the dull PA voice. "Jaden Yuki to duel field four, I repeat, Jaden Yuki to duel field four."

Carrie looked around, seeing a brunette rise from his seats and talk to his friends before walking down the stairs, _'I thought I or the Bastion guy had the last duel…' _She wondered but shrugged it off and continued up the stairs, passing by the brunette.

"Hey you're the one that just dueled!" Jaden said as they passed by. "Sweet deck by the way."

Carrie blinked for a second at the sudden interaction before smiling, an eyebrow raised. "Well you're the one who's gonna duel, so good luck down there." She said.

"Thanks! Welp gotta jet!" Jaden then continued walking down, waving to Carrie who continued up, she found her seat filled with more people around it, specifically Bastion and Syrus.

"Mind if I sit here?" She asked and the two shook their head while Bastion picked up his gear and she gave a quick thanks and sat down, opening her backpack and putting her duel disk back in place. She saw Crowler, who had a large duel disk, with the field slung across his torso and the deck holder on his chest currently getting prepped up on him.

"He's so sure of himself, I wonder if he's really that good." Syrus said.

"He's going to need to be, look who he's dueling." Bastion replied and the three looked on.

"Nice get up... So, who is he dueling?" Carrie asked.

On the duel field…

Jaden slowly rose up the elevator, silently gawking at his surrounding and his opponent just finished getting his gear set up. "Alright, test time!" Crowler announced. "So son, your name?"

Jaden turned to Crowler, immediately straightening up. "Uh Jaden, Jaden Yuki!"

"Well uh-Jaden-Yuki, I'm Dr. Vellian Crowler, Department Chair of Techniques here in Duel Academy." He introduced.

"Wow a Department Chair, I had no idea! With how you were dressed, I thought you were some weird Academy mascot!" Jaden said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Like a majorette or a cheerleader!" He said while laughing.

On another part with good ol' Chazz Princeton and his mates…

"You know now that he mentions it…" One of them, Torimaki, muttered silently.

"This kid's got some lip huh Chazz?" The other one, Mototani, asked the leader of the triad, ignoring Torimaki.

Chazz didn't reply but he was evidently irritated, gritting his teeth and glaring at Jaden.

"Duel Vest, on!" Crowler commanded his equipment which lit up at the chest piece and 5 cards slid out and Crowler grabbed them as he moved the field in position.

Jaden looked on in awe. "That's pretty sweet teach!" He complimented. "How do I get one of those cool blue duel blazers?"

"Oh a lot of hard work and extremely high marks." Crowler said casually with pride in his voice. _'Of course you have to get IN Duel Academy first. And I intend to make CERTAIN that won't be happening!'_

"Well I'm ready!" Jaden said, grinning and drawing his five cards.

"So let's duel!" They both said.

**Jaden: 4000  
Crowler: 4000**

"Here it goes…" Jaden said as he drew his card and checked his hand, smiling. "Sweet, I'm gonna summon Elemental Hero Avian in defense mode!"

A card appeared on the ground and from it, a fairly muscular man dressed in green appeared. His face covered by a green feathered helmet with a red mask. He has a clawed gauntlet on his left arm, covering the hand and similar red claws for his feet and a pair of white wings. After soaring out of his card, he knelt in front of Jaden (3/1000/**1000**).

"I'll also throw down a facedown and end my turn." Jaden announced as a reversed card appeared. "Alright, get your game on!"

"Yes… very good…" Crowler said sarcastically as he went for a card on the vest. "Don't tell me what to do." He silently muttered, chuckled and checked his hand.

'_After all, since I'm using my own personal deck rather than using those test ones, I'll be calling all the shots.' _He thought with a smirk. _'I'll fail that insolent little brat and send him home in no time.'_

"Alright for this first move, I think I'll start nice and easy!" Crowler announced as he plucked a card from his hand. "I choose to play the spell card, Confiscation!"

"Ok, so, what does it do?" Jaden asked.

"What it does is allow me to pay 1000 lifepoints for the chance to pick at your hand and toss one of your cards into the graveyard!" He announced gleefully as Jaden's cards glowed blue and holograms of his cards appeared in front of Crowler.

**Crowler: 3000  
Jaden: 4000**

"Oh yes I remember some of these from back when I was a naïve rookie." Jaden gritted his teeth as Crowler looked at his cards. "Now which one shall I banish? Ah yes, Monster Reborn to the graveyard!" Crowler pointed at the reversed card and it flipped over to show the famous card, which shattered to pixels.

Jaden discarded the spell card and turned back to his opponent. "Next I place two cards facedown on the field." Two reversed cards appeared in front of Crowler before he took another card. "And last but not least, I'll play Heavy Storm! This spell card destroys every other spell and trap card out on the field!"

A wind kicked up across the field and flipped every facedown spell and trap cards face up, shattering Jaden's draining shield and Crowler's two Statue of the Wicked. "Whoopsie! Did you forget you had two trap cards out on the field yourself?"

Crowler simply chuckled as the storm passed. "Now, now you mustn't speak out of turn young scholar." Suddenly, dark blue fog surrounded the field.

"What's happening?" Jaden asked, confused.

"Nothing's happening. Not yet anyway!" And in front of Crowler, came two worm like monsters, which oddly had claws. Both had four eyes with dark green scleras and red irises and jaws that carried a red stone ball in their mouths (4/1000/**1000**)2x.

Bastion was relaxed in his seat, his arms crossed over his chest while Carrie leaned forward, fixated in the duel. Syrus was standing at the back, confused at what had happened. "Can somebody tell me what's going on?"

"The two traps that Dr. Crowler had on the field was called 'Statue of the Wicked'. It's a special trap that creates a Wicked Token monster when it's destroyed, that's why he played Heavy Storm."

"That was a good move…" Carrie noted. "Darn."

"A card that powerful couldn't be in one of the test decks!" Torimaki said. "Crowler must be using his own."

"Then this is over, no applicant can beat the deck of an expert like Dr. Crowler!" Mototani added.

"Yeah it's impossible, don'cha think Chazz?"

"Yeah what do you think Chazz?"

Chazz grinned in his seat. "I think I'm gonna enjoy watching Crowler mop the floor with our mouthy little friend down there, I only wish he treated all the other second rate duelists the same way."

And right above them…

"What an elitist snob…" Alexis muttered. "Bullying some amateur with his very best cards…"

"You're too soft Alexis." Zane said. "I just hope we get to see that legendary monster Crowler has stashed away in that deck of his."

"Besides if this kid can't beat Crowler he won't last long in the Academy." Danny added, stretching her back.

Back down on the field, the dark fog disappeared and the tokens stared down Avian. "Ready for your next lesson?" He asked.

Jaden laughed, excited at his opponent's move. "You bet! I can't remember the last time learning was this much fun!"

Crowler hummed disapprovingly. "Yes… well, I'm quite the excellent teacher thank you." He said sarcastically. The two tokens then bursted into flames as it writhed in place. "Now I sacrifice my two Wicked Tokens to summon my Ancient Gear Golem!" Crowler held up the card before placing it on his disk, which triggered another storm as a monster rose from the ground. The audience gasped and eyed the rising monster, which was a giant machine with large gears in various places. It had a helmet that showed its one red eye, similar to that of a Roman Phrygian helmet.

"There it is! The legendary rare card!" Alexis gasped as the monster creaked and groaned in place and the smoke disappeared, revealing its impressive stature (8/**3000**/3000).

"I say we're about to find out what makes it so legendary." Zane added.

"I hope you're not too scared of my legendary Ancient Gear Golem!" Crowler said from the duel field.

"Nah I've always wanted to face one!" Jaden declared, causing Alexis to gasp and Danny to raise her eyebrows and the crowds added in their mixed reaction.

"Either Jaden's really brave or he's nuts!" Syrus gasped.

"What makes it so legendary anyway?" Carrie asked Bastion.

"We're about to see…" Bastion waved her off, he too was fixated on the duel.

"He's staring down that legendary rare monster like he doesn't have a care in the world." Zane said, a little impressed. "I guess the youth and inexperience have their benefits after all."

"C'mon give it a rest Zane, at least the kid's showing some backbone." Alexis waved off the senior's comment.

"There won't be much to show after this." Danny muttered.

Crowler laughed. "Golem attack with Mechanized Melee!" He pulled back a fist and pumped it forward, directed at Jaden's Avian.

The red eye of the Golem lit up, acknowledging the request and the gears in its head began to spin, causing the other gears to spin as its arm pulled back and launched a fist at the green Elemental Hero, which braced itself as it faced a fist to its face and shattered to pixels.

"Aw Jaden's monster didn't stand a chance, its defense points were way too low!" Syrus said worriedly then shook his head. "This isn't looking good."

"And it's about to get worse." Bastion began which prompted the other two to lean over and listen to the intellectual applicant's explanation. "When that Ancient Gear Golem attacks a monster in defense mode, the difference between the attacking monster's attack points and the defending monster's defense point is dealt to the opponent as damage."

"That means… 2000 lifepoints going down!" Carrie realized.

The holographic fist continued after it hit Avian, heading straight for Jaden and dropping his points.

**Crowler: 3000  
Jaden: 2000**

Jaden was shaking in place, silently making incomprehensible noises while Crowler laughed, mistaking it as sobbing. "Don't feel bad, this is the top dueling school in the country! Some people are simply not cut out… for…" Jaden's head slowly rose, along with the volume of his laughter, causing Crowler to stop and see him smile instead.

"Boy I really wanna come to this school now!" He said, a determined look on his face. "You really know your stuff teach!"

Crowler's eyes bugged out at Jaden and he gritted his teeth, trembling with rages. _'Can't he take a hint? You will NOT be allowed to pass this exam! And he certainly won't be permitted to make a mockery of MY deck!'_

'_Just look at him tremble! He must really be impressed by me!'_ As he was about to draw however…

'Coo!' Was the noise he heard, intriguing him to draw his next card. He drew the card and saw it was a furry little brown monster with green paws and large eyes and a pair of wings, the card he received from a stranger this morning…

"_Watch out!" Jaden warned as he skidded to a halt and warned the person in front of him, who moved too late and caused Jaden to hit him and fall backwards, dropping his deck and duel disk, "Sorry!" He apologized to the person behind him as he picked up his cards, making sure they're alright._

"_You're a duelist aren't you?" The stranger asked._

_Jaden turned around, smiling, "Yup! I'm just gonna try out for the Academy!"_

_The stranger's expressionless face turned to one of amusement and he softly smiled, "You don't say?" He asked while opening his deck case._

_Jaden stood up, laughing sheepishly, confirming the stranger's question and finally getting a good look at the person he hit. "H-Hey you're-"_

"_Why don't you take this? Something tells me it belongs to you. "The stranger said, giving him a card. Jaden looked at him, surprised but looked at the card._

"_Wow, for real?" He asked._

_Without another word, the stranger walked away, "Good luck." Was his last words to Jaden as he walked towards the path out of the park._

"_Hey wait!" Jaden said and turned around. "Thank you! I'll… make you proud!" He said and bowed respectfully and Yugi turned around slightly, giving the brunette a thumbs up._

_Jaden checked his new gift, a Winged Kuriboh, that he heard coo the same way it did just now._

"Oh it's you!" He exclaimed to himself after remembering how he got it and smiled at the card as its wings glowed, _'Something tells me that it belongs with me too.' _Pleased, he read over the monster's effect again, suddenly seeing it wink at him. _'I guess that's a sign to play you! Yeah, definitely!'_

"Alright, I summon Winged Kuriboh in defense mode!" Jaden announced. "And I'll place one card facedown, not bad huh?" He asked as a reversed card appeared behind Winged Kuriboh.

Crowler laughed confidently. "No, not bad but you must understand that I'm a master technician, a Kuriboh to me is rather pedestrian, even one with wings. You see its defense points are still no match for my Golem!" He said mockingly. "It's a textbook mistake don't feel bad… now let's proceed…"

His vest beeped again as a card slid out. "With the legendary Ancient Gear Golem, attack that Kuriboh with Mechanized Melee!"

Once again, the Golem acknowledged the request, spinning its gears and pulling back its fist as it punched the small brown creature, which managed to endure the first second, but shattered to pixels afterwards. Jaden shielded himself from the winged creature's demise, looking at where it was. _'Sorry Winged Kuriboh…'_

Crowler however, frowned even more than anyone thought possible. "Check your gear, your lifepoints haven't changed."

"My gear's fine!" He replied casually. "On the turn Winged Kuriboh's sent to the graveyard I take 0 damage."

Crowler gritted his teeth and his eyes widened in enraged shock as the crowd gasped.

"How 'bout that, a technique the good doctor didn't know." Alexis smirked as Danny laughed slightly at her comment.

"No one can be expected to know every technique Alexis, especially one as obscure as that." Zane retorted.

"And a fairy in a deck of Elemental Heroes is quite odd." Danny shrugged.

"Yeah well that kid made it work." Alexis said, ignoring the two and amused at the duel.

Jaden moved the Kuriboh to the graveyard as Crowler regained his composure, "Fine, fine, I guess your lame little monster saved you there."

"Hey slow down there teach! You may have beat him but that doesn't give you the right to call him lame!" Jaden countered and Crowler rolled his eyes.

"Oh yes I forget how attached you new duelists are with your monsters, I'm sorry." He joked.

"Well you should be, because by attacking my Winged Kuriboh, you've set off a trap card, and one of my favorites too! Hero signal!" Jaden grinned as his reversed card flipped up and a beam of light fired from it, leaving a stylized H in the sky that caused Crowler and the audience to look up at it. Jaden then grabbed his deck, searching for a card. "That brings out my second Elemental Hero!" He then picked a card. "Burstinatrix!"

A pillar of fire appeared in front of Jaden and brought out the fire themed Elemental Hero, a grey skinned, green eyed woman in a skintight red suit and a golden headpiece appeared and soared slightly, before hovering a few inches above the ground (3/**1200**/800).

"My turn!" Jaden said as he drew a card. "Alright Winged Kuriboh, this next one's for you… Here goes nothin'…" A spell card appeared on his field. "First off I'm bringing back Avian with the spell card, the Warrior Returning Alive!" A card slid out of the Graveyard slot and Jaden picked it up. "And now I'm gonna summon him to the field!"

The green winged hero returned to the field next to his ally (3/**1000**/1000).

"Oh okay, another amateurish mistake!" Crowler taunted. "But this is good, this is good, now would anyone like to tell me what our little friend here-"

"Now, actually I wasn't done yet…" Jaden interrupted. "See, I know my two heroes aren't very powerful by themselves, but if I can form them together, that's a whole other story! And I have just the card to do it!" Jaden then showed a card to Crowler.

Crowler gritted his teeth, irked that the applicant had interrupted him.

"Polymerization! Fuse Avian and Burstinatrix!" The two Heroes jumped into a fusion gate that appeared a little bit above them. "Fusion Summon!" A new hero appeared from the portal, descending and hovered above the field. The hero has a mix of Avian and Burstinatrix's colors, even elements from their design, but unlike the two, this one has a red dragon for a right arm, and a red tail as well (6/**2100**/1200). "There he is! The Elemental Hero-Flame Wingman! I hope your Golem's ready for a Clash of the Titans!"

The crowd gave a mixed reaction of cheers and gasps at Jaden's new monster.

"So teach, whaddya think!" Jaden asked the doctor who shook his head disapprovingly.

"I think you're dueling very well for an amateur, but next time, try summoning a monster with higher attack points than the ones out on the field." Crowler replied with a wearied tone, tired of Jaden's games.

"What does he mean?" Syrus asked.

"He means that Wingman's attack points are no match for his Ancient Gear Golem's attack points, shame too." Bastion explained "When the Wingman destroys a monster, that monster's attack points are dealt as damage to its owner."

"Pretty sure he has a plan. He still has that card." Carrie pointed to the lone card in Jaden's hand.

"True, if your friend's as good as he says he is, he might use that to find a way." Bastion added nonchalantly.

"Wow did we really seem like friends?" Syrus joked but his expression a little out of place and flattered.

"Alright young scholar, I don't mean to rush you but I am a busy man…" Crowler sighed. "Are you done yet?"

"Of course… I'm not done yet!" Jaden almost scoffed as his field spell slot opened. "And of course I knew my Wingman has less attack points than your Golem! That's why I have this." Jaden flipped over the card in his hand, showing a city with spotlights and the moon hanging in the sky on its top right corner. "Skyscraper! Go!"

Light shined as buildings appeared and rose from the ground, surrounding Jaden, Crowler and the Golem while darkening the sky. In the scramble of the rising buildings, the Flame Wingman found the highest building, a building with a lightning rod, and perched there, looking down at the surrounded Golem. The moon was behind the Wingman, giving him a menacing look.

"Alright Flame Wingman, go show those heroics and attack that Ancient Gear Golem with Skydive Scorcher!" Jaden commanded as the hero deliberately dropped from where he perched and jumped up high into the sky, finding a good enough angle before beginning its drop on the Golem.

"Fine, bring him on!" Crowler replied, relaxed. "This silly little field spell of yours hasn't lowered my Golem's attack points by one bit!"

Soon however, the Wingman was enveloped in flames and its arms and wings was tucked back in. "You're right teach! What it's done is raise my Flame Wingman's attack points by a grand total of 1000!"

"WAIT WHAT TIME OUT!" Crowler shrieked as he realized the hero's flames, which grew stronger (6/2100-**3100**/1200). He pulled out a fist and dove for the Golem's core, damaging the cogs and causing it to explode. He then emerged on the other side, crouching after a job well done. A piece of the crumbling Golem hit Crowler in the head, dropping his points slightly.

**Crowler: 2900  
Jaden: 2000**

"Oh and Flame Wingman has a special ability! When he destroys a monster, the attack points are dealt as damage to your lifepoints!" Jaden explained before grinning. "Sweet huh?"

"No way…" Crowler then realized, the remains of the Golem creaked as it stood its ground but was unsteady and began to fall. Flame Wingman, using the dragon arm, fired a small fire beam to the Golem's weak spot and made the Golem collapse as the rubble fell down on Crowler, and brought down his life points.

**Crowler: 0  
Jaden: 2000**

"And that's game!" Jaden cheered as he gave the doctor a two finger salute with his index and middle finger. "So I passed the test, huh teach?"

The field spell disappeared and the crowd cheered, some joined in late after they shook away the shock of how the late, amateur student managed to beat a teacher's personal deck.

"Impossible… There's no way this delinquent flunkie could defeat me!"

Up in the stands, the students with the Blue Coats seemed the most surprised, especially Chazz, who gritted his teeth. "It must've been dumb luck! No way Crowler could lose to some flunkie!"

And directly above them, Alexis was smiling. "That kid's got a future here, wow!" She then waited or a split second and turned around, seeing Zane walk away, a ghost of an impressed smile on his face and a shocked Danny, who turned to Zane and the duel field, before following behind him.

"Alright Jaden won!" Syrus cheered.

'_Nice, I could use a little competition.' _Bastion thought as Jaden waved towards the cheering crowd.

'_Awesome, I'll get to face these Heroes in Duel Academy…' _Carrie grinned inwardly at the thought.

"I made it to the Academy!" Jaden cheered at the crowd, waving and turning around all over to address everyone he can. "I'm in! I'm in!" He laughed. Jaden then pulled out a card from his graveyard slot, Winged Kuriboh and smiled. _'We're both in!'_ He rejoiced at the card in his mind. _'And from here on out, you and I Kuriboh, we'll be partners!'_

Again, the Kuriboh winked and cooed at Jaden.

**Wahoo 18 pages and 7 700+ words that's way more than the mega final project for my school!**

**Please Rate and Review, I hope you enjoyed that because there's a whole lot more yo!**

**EDIT: Thank you to 'Guest' for telling me about Dicephoon! Although I did get Hajime's level right, she's a level 7 not a level 8. Level 5 NOTE, Level 2 Hajime Ichinose, level 7 Gatchaman-Hajime**

**EDIT 2: Changed rule on the 4000 LP**


	2. Over in the Pacific Rim

**Hey everybody I'm back! Ye! Here's chapter two, with a little difference in the start. Also INTRODUCING a whole buncha OCs this chapter! Also titles aren't really related to the stories itself, but I try to get it related or it's probably a song title that gives an overall feel of the chapter, or songs I played dominantly while writing this story.**

**Anyway, let's go.**

**Discalimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. I own my own OC and the effects of the Gatchaman monsters are mine. WrittenWhim, ShadowKuriboh900 and Robs The Universal Warrior's mystery OC and their fanmade cards belong to them and I would like to thank all three for letting me use their OCs in this fanfic!**

**Chapter 2: SAIL**

_Early in the morning, a group of 3 boats left the docks of Domino City, filled with children who leaned over the railings, waving at the adults or younger children, presumably their siblings, as the boat moved away._

"_Bye Dad!" Carrie waved from the boat, after slightly struggling to find a spot where she could look over the boat._

"_Bye sweetheart! Mom said good luck!" Her father replied, waving to the peach haired girl._

_After a good distance away from the docks, Carrie pulled out her cellphone from her pocket, dialed a number and waited._

"What…?"_ The voice on the other line grumbled._

"_Mom? Just wanted to tell you I'm out already?"_

_She heard clattering on the other side and the shuffling of sheets and soon, a gasp. _"Oh! Oh! Oh my God! It's happening! Congrats sweetie! Oh God I'm so proud of you!"

_Carrie laughed at her mother. "By the way, when's your match?"_

"Huh?" _There was a pause as her mother checked the phone. _"I overslept!" _She realized._

_Carrie sighed jokingly. "You said this was important to you!"_

"Shh! I have to get ready now! You know I love you sweetie, call me later!" _Her mother called out, her voice distant as she ran around her hotel room._

"_Alright bye-bye!" Carrie sang out and clicked her phone off, smiling at her mom's antics._

* * *

She smiled at the memory as her boat approached Duel Academy island, an island out in the Pacific ocean, with an active volcano on one side and a building at the base of said volcano. The building had 4 domes at the top, a large white dome, a blue dome under it, a yellow one then a red one, arranged like stairs. The side of the buildings had some pillars on it. Alongside that, Carrie could make out a waterfall and the docks, along with a nice sandy beach.

"_Attention new Duel Academy students, this is your Captain speaking. Ahead of us is Duel Academy island, your new home away from home." _The captain announced over the PA _"Beautiful isn't it? Now please return to your seats, and when we dock, exit in an orderly fashion so you can explore the islands faster. So kids, welcome to Duel Academy."_

The children inside exchanged excited conversations and whispers as they walked back to their seats and Carrie remembered hers, it was next to the girl who hasn't moved one bit when they announced they're within Academy Island view range. She has choppy, chin length umber hair, wearing a white t-shirt and jeans along with grey sneakers. Her name's Kaye Aoki, Carrie vaguely remembered her duel, specifically the girl's Wind monsters.

"Are you sure you're alright not seeing it?" Carrie asked Kaye who didn't budge. "It's a nice view out there."

"I don't get it, we're gonna live there anyway, plenty of time to explore." She shrugged.

Carrie plopped down to her seat, grabbing her duffel bag just for the sake of having it near her. "I guess you're right." Carrie thought aloud as she fixed her hair, this time it was let down and there was a lock of hair that she braided across her head and cleaned up her skirt, a yellow high waisted skater skirt that tucked in a white shirt.

Kaye looked at her new schoolmate oddly, "You pay so much attention to all of that." She realized.

"Nothing better to do." Carrie puffed her right cheek and shrugged

* * *

After a moment of registration and picking up her uniform, Carrie realized she was in a dorm called Ra Yellow, specified also by the color of her uniform. She was then directed to the main hall, where she reunited with Kaye, who she got separated with while changing to each other's uniforms along with Jaden, Syrus and Bastion, the first boy was sleepy and halfway through the speech that their Chancellor, Chancellor Sheppard, gave, he actually dozed off.

"_Now please, get yourself settled in at your assigned dorms! I think you'll find them quite comfortable, depending on how you rank of course!" _Their Chancellor looked like a kind middle aged man, with the docile appearance and the bald head and he gave a jolly laugh at the last bit.

Outside, Syrus, Jaden and Carrie were sitting outside, in front one of the statues at the path to the main building and the two boys in red were checking out their standard issue PDAs. "I don't know about you Sy but it looks like I'm in the Slifer Red dorm!"

"That's cool, me too!" Syrus said.

"How 'bout you Carrie, are you in Slifer Red?" Jaden asked.

She saw Bastion and Kaye pass by, sharing a conversation and getting acquainted with each other, seeing as she and Bastion are also in Ra. "Hey, Bastion, Kaye, do you think we're in Slifer Red?"

"Let's see now, yellow sleeves, yellow buttons…" Bastion began after stopping at his dorm mate's call.

"Yellow trims, yellow skirt…" Kaye added.

"Yellow boots and yellow gloves, guess we're in the Ra Yellow Jaden." Carrie said.

"Oh I get it, that's why Sy and I are in red." The Slifer looked down to his blazer, understanding the concept.

"Did you… honestly just figured that out?" Kaye asked.

Jaden frowned and looked at the group, "So what? Ever think I'm colorblind?" He snapped.

Everyone grew silent, most shocked was Kaye, who felt bad for being possibly insensitive. "Actually… No, are you colorblind?" She asked softly.

Jaden laughed cheekily. "Nah but I could've been! Oh yeah, I'm Jaden! Jaden Yuki."

Kaye calmed down considerably and sighed, "Kaye Aoki, you're the guy who beat that teacher huh?"

"Aw man you should've seen that duel! It was so cool, shame your entrance exam was pretty early…" Carrie looked at her new dorm mate who simply shrugged it away. "Anyway I'm heading to my dorm."

Kaye nodded. "Me too." She added and the two Ra girls walked away, Bastion followed a little later and Jaden waved at the three.

"See you around the dorms!" He called out and prompted Bastion to turn around.

"I doubt that, your dorm's over there." Bastion interjected and pointed his thumb ways off the path to the Ra dorm. Syrus and Jaden looked at each other, the former a little bit worried.

* * *

"Phew!" Carrie sighed as she finished setting up her room and plopped on to the bed. She placed her new school equipment over at the table, like her PDA and lunch tickets along with her own cellphone which she left charging. Along with that, she emptied her duffel bag, which consisted of 3 different pyjamas and 3 sets of the Ra Yellow uniform that she unceremoniously stashed in her bag when she got it this morning.

The last thing she brought out were two boxes, the first was large, used to contain cards that she found in pack but never used, but now it only contained a few, most of which her mother took. The other was a jewelry box where she keeps her accessories. It was brown, made of wood, and her dad was against her bringing it but she brought it anyway. She smiled at the sight of the box before placing it on the table before exiting the room and with her duel disk on her left arm.

The Ra Yellow dorm was large, not as large as any of the Obelisk buildings, but large enough to contain a more or less equal number of male and female students. While the male students took up the right wing, the female students took up the left wing. In the center of the building was a main dining hall, behind that being a kitchen, and a study hall.

"Are you settling in to Ra well?" Someone asked her as she passed by the dining hall and was met with the Headmaster of the Ra Yellow Boys Wing, Professor Sartyr, a kind looking man with a thick Spanish accent.

Carrie nodded, smiling at the teacher. "I haven't seen the Ra Yellow headmistress though…"

"Ah, about that, there is none currently." Professor Sartyr began and Carrie tilted her head. "The previous one's contract expired and the school is in the process of finding another one. For now, the Obelisk Headmistress and I are sharing the responsibility of that."

"Oh I see now… Well thanks then! I'm gonna go look around the island!" Carrie said as she walked away.

"Be back by 6! The welcome dinner starts then." Sartyr advised.

* * *

"This isn't a dorm… It's like an outhouse with a deck…" Syrus muttered as he set down his satchel to look at their dorm. The Slifer dorm was… simple, to put it nicely. It was long and rectangular, with a shabby red roof and a rickety staircase that lead to the second floor. There was a small appendage at the side of the building, the showers. Jaden and Syrus went up to the boy's floor, after realizing the first floor is for the limited number of girls in Slifer and the two Headmasters of Slifer red.

Jaden had a much better outlook that Syrus however, as he went to the corner of the second floor, looking at the sea. "Yeah but check out the view! This place is great!"

The two then walked to one of the doors, Jaden put his key in and opened the door, met by a darkened room. "This one here's our room!" He announced to Syrus.

The small boy was reading his PDA, making sure they're in the right room. "It's kinda small huh?"

"Well you're a small guy!" Jaden waved off and finally got a good look of his room. There's a small TV next to a study desk, a triple decker bed and on the wall next to him was the wardrobe, a small stove with a kettle on it and a small tap. "Anyway, I like it, this'll make a sweet pad for our first year here!"

"Yeah… Kinda weird meeting at the entrance exams, and now roommates?" Syrus wondered. "Think we were somehow connected to each other in some ancient life Jaden?" The small Slifer was beginning to let his imagination lose, not noticing Jaden walking across towards the window, giving him an odd look. "You know like you were some Egyptian Pharaoh and I was the guardian Seto?"

"No offense but that's just lame…" Jaden disagreed.

"Well it could be true." Syrus defended half-heartedly.

"Forget it! They broke the mold when they made us!"

"Yeah, for different reasons…" Syrus sighed as his mood sunk.

"Sy, we're gonna have to work on that confidence." Jaden scratched his cheek at his roommate. "But first, let's try getting some light in here! A sweet view and its covered up with a curtain? Where's the fun in that!" Jaden forced the curtains open and finally let some in to the darkened room.

"Hey! Those we're closed for a reason!"

"Huh?" Jaden closed the curtains and looked at the top bunk.

"O-Oh sorry…" Syrus apologized meekly.

"Yeah, we didn't see you up there!" Jaden added.

"Well can you see me now?!"

The covers raised to reveal a boy whose face, build and hairstyle reminded Jaden and Syrus of a koala and wore a blazer like theirs, but the color was inverted so it was mostly white with red trimmings. He growled, angry at being interrupted in his slumber. The two boys shrieked at the sight of the boy, which only irritated him further. "Would you stop the screamin'! Who are you and what are you doing in my room?" He demanded.

Jaden took the liberty to start their introduction. "Oh, sorry! My name's Jaden Yuki!"

"And I'm Syrus."

"We're your new…" The other Slifer grumbled before he rolled to his other side, his back faced the new boys, causing Jaden to look at Syrus, confused. "Roommates?"

"You're new alright, so lemme tell you how things work here." He began.

"Uh what things?" Jaden asked.

"Like when Parent's week's gonna be?" Syrus joined in.

"Duh, like the whole color system, it's the most important thing here."

Syrus and Jaden simultaneous gave a confused 'Huh?' but the third Slifer continued anyway. "You've got three different kind of students here. Obelisk Blue students, Ra Yellow students and Slifer Red students." He began. "Now the blues are the highest rank, some get in 'cuz they're great, others through connections. Yellows are second highest, mostly younger students with lotta potential. Then there's us, the 'Red Wonders'…" He concluded, sounding upset just by explaining it to them.

"The wonders…" Syrus parroted. "That's a cool name."

"As in I wonder how flunkies like us ever got this far maybe!" The Slifer snapped, shocking Syrus. "Yeah, sorry, we're bottom of the barrel here, dueling duds!" He continued, only serving to upset Syrus even more. "Oh, I'm Chumley by the way!"

* * *

"Duel!"

She didn't know how it came down to be like this. Those two had one misunderstanding and now they're dueling in the study hall.

* * *

_Carrie was heading out when she heard two people argue nearby. Drawn by it, she came over, seeing Kaye and a boy with short brown hair. He looked physically fit and along with that, had an angry look on his face._

"_Alright fine! We'll settle this with a duel!"_

"_I couldn't agree more!"_

* * *

"Just speed this up, we gotta see the island before dinner Kaye!" Carrie cheered. A small crowd of 4 had huddled around them, including Bastion, who had an exasperated look on him. "Bastion? What's wrong?"

"I know him, just met him this morning, Kaye's dueling Matt Roberts." Bastion explained.

Carrie titled her head, not recognizing him. "Is he good?"

After a pause, Bastion replied. "Possibly more than that. His deck's rather powerful."

**Kaye: 4000  
Matt: 4000**

Matt started first, drawing his sixth card. "I summon Magician's Valkyria in defense mode!" He announced as a magician's seal appeared on the ground, bringing a female spellcaster to the area, hovering over the seal and the seal disappeared as soon as she arrived. The spellcaster had strawberry blonde hair with a light blue hat with gold trims and wore a light blue magician's outfit with gold trims, and some parts were purple with gold trims. She carried a purple staff with had 3 dark green jewels on it. After soaring slightly, she crouched down, her staff went across her (4/1600/**1800**). "I also set a card facedown, your move…"

After drawing, Kaye briefly checked her hand, before placing a monster on her tray. "I summon Dodger Dragon in attack mode!" She said and in a flurry of wings, a 6 legged lizard appeared. It has green scale on its backs which spiked at the sides and a yellow underbelly. Near the end of its tail was a 3 pairs of dragonfly like wings. Its tail created a crescent and was silver and metallic in nature (4/**1900**/1200). Kaye saw how it wasn't setting off Matt's facedown and looked at the dragon. "Attack the Valkyria with Crescent Slash!"

The slim dragon soared over to Matt's side and latched itself to the Magician, coiling around her before jabbing her with its crescent tail, making the magician explode while the dragon returned.

"I activate Broken Blocker! Since you destroyed Valkyria, whose defense is higher than her attack points, I get to summon up to two monsters with the same name in defense mode!" Matt announced as he opened his deck and took out two cards, placing them both on the field in defense mode as the two Valkyrias appeared, crouching down like the one before (4/1600/**1800**)2x.

Kaye sighed. "I'll place these two facedown and end my turn."

"Wow, the Valkyria lock already." Carrie whistled.

"Not bad huh?" Matt grinned and looked at the small crowd around the two duelists.

"Eyes on me! We're dueling!" Kaye called out while Matt shrugged and drew a card, a little unpleased with the Dodger Dragon's high attack.

"I summon Defender, the Magical Knight in defense mode!" He said and a knight in blue armor with golden trims appeared, carrying a large blue shield with gold accents and a red stone in the middle and a small dagger in the other hand. He set the shield down and knelt behind it as the stone glowed red and now bore the insignia of a spell counter (4/1000/**2000**)[1 SPELL COUNTER]. He made no further moves and signaled the end of his turn, meaning Kaye got to draw a card.

Kaye smirked at her hand. "First I play my facedowns, Degenerate Circuit and Soul Absorption! With Degenerate Circuit, any monster that's supposed to return to your hand gets removed from play instead! While Soul Absorption gives me 500 lifepoints for each one removed from play!" She then placed a monster next to her Dodger Dragon. "And now I summon Flying Kamakiri 3!"

In a small flurry of winds, an insect like monster appeared, it stood on both legs like the first Kamakiri but had the lower abdomen of the second Kamakiri, and its arms looked like the second Kamakiri (4/**1600**/700).

"And for my next trick I play Double Summon, letting me summon again!" Kaye briefly inserted the spell card, registering it in her Duel Disk before sending it to the graveyard. "And now I'll tribute Dodger Dragon and Flying Kamakiri 3 to tribute summon Simorgh, Bird of Ancestry!"

Her two monsters were covered in a golden tornado and vanished as they were tributed. And now, a golden bird with four wings and an ornament on its back swooped on to the field. The large bird wore a necklace with a green jewel in the middle and shark teeth adorned it. It cawed menacingly at the opposition's Defender (8/**2900**/2000).

"And when he's tribute summoned with only WIND attribute monsters, he can return 2 cards on the field to your hand! But thanks to Degenerate Circuit, they're removed from play!" Matt frowned, knowing the target of her Simorgh's effect. "But there's more, because now my Flying Kamakiri 3's special ability activates! If he goes to the graveyard from the field, I can summon a WIND monster with 1500 or less attack points!"

Kaye picked a card from her deck and shuffled it, placing the deck in its place and the new monster on the field. "I summon the Hunter Owl!"

From a tornado on the ground, a bipedal bird appeared, carrying a silver spear. The bipedal bird had the head of an owl with amber eyes and parts of it were either white or red, while some feathers around its eyes were white with red tips. Some of its sharper, larger feathers were on its back, colored beige with red tips (4/**1000**/900).

"And now for Simorgh's ability! I pick your two Valkyrias!" Simorgh flapped its wing, kicking up a golden tornado that covered the two magicians. It blew them upwards, where static electricity from Degenerate Circuit ripped the ceiling, creating a portal to another dimension where the two Valkyrias went. Matt pocketed the cards while Kaye gained lifepoints.

**Kaye: 5000  
Matt: 4000**

"While Hunter Owl gets a boost because he's a Wind monster and so is Simorgh, his attack goes up by 1000!" Kaye added as the Owl gained a boost (4/1000-**2000**/900).

"Oh boy…" Matt grumbled.

"Simorgh, attack Defender with Ancient Wind!" Kaye commanded as the golden bird screeched and lifted up into the sky, flapping its wings before giving one large thrust and sent a tornado towards Defender, it impacted with the shield.

However, Defender stayed, despite wavering against the storm. "You must be familiar with Defender's effect right?"

"Yeah, he can remove a spell counter to keep a Spellcaster on the field." Kaye confirmed.

"Never said it had to be another spellcaster!" Matt grinned.

"Well unless you have a way to defend him, he's gone next turn!" Kaye said as she ended her turn, seeing as her hand contained a card she couldn't use.

"My draw then!" Matt drew a card and smirked. "I hope you're ready to meet a celebrity because now I play Cost Down and discard this!"

Matt showed his card and everyone gasped at the sight of it.

"_No way…" _Someone muttered.

"_He has it!" _Another gasped.

"_Guys! Guys! He has the Dark Magician!" _Another shouted to the doors that lead to the outside and it caught the attention of the few students walking around, all of whom started walking in and surrounding the two duelists. Matt nonchalantly discarded the Dark Magician as twin swords appeared above him.

"And now, with Cost Down in play I can reduce the level of all monsters in my hand by two, and with only 4 stars in her name now, I can summon the Dark Magician Girl without a tribute!"

Kaye flinched as a magician's seal appeared on the ground, summoning the famous spellcaster to the field in a flurry of hearts. She twirled her scepter in her hand as she appeared and the small crowd that were there cheered and gave their mixed reaction at the appearance of the Dark Magician Girl (6-**4**/**2000**/1700).

"And thanks to her Special Ability, since the Dark Magician is in the graveyard, she gains 300 attack points!" Matt announced as the scepter's twirled edge shined along with the jewels on her outfit as the spirit of the Dark Magician bestowed his magic to her (4/2000-**2300**/1700).

"Please you can't even touch Hunter Owl, when another Wind attribute monster is out, he's untouchable!" Kaye explained although she did look slightly worried.

"I'm aiming a little bit bigger, like at your Simorgh! And that bird is gonna go away real soon, after I play Spellbook of Power! It gives a Spellcaster monster of mine 1000 attack points until the end phase, and for each monster the Spellcaster destroys, I can add a 'Spellbook' card from my deck to my hand."

The red spell book appeared in the Dark Magician Girl's hands, who read it, idly waiting for more to do, all the while gaining more power (4/2300-**3300**/1700) and Kaye winced slightly.

"Dark Magician Girl, attack Simorgh with Dark Power Attack!" Matt said as the spellcaster looked up from her book, closing it and nodding to Matt. She lifted her scepter and conjured black flames that headed for Simorgh, who screeched and exploded.

**Kaye: 4600  
Matt: 4000**

Hunter Owl weakened at the loss of a Wind monster (4/2000-**1500**/900). "I place one card facedown and end my turn." Matt said as a reversed card appeared and Dark Magician Girl returned to her normal strength (4-**6**/3300-**2300**/1700).

"He didn't add a Spellbook card." Carrie realized.

"He probably doesn't have any that would help him in mind." Bastion offered and Carrie simply nodded.

Kaye drew a card, and glowed red thanks to Degenerate Circuit

**Kaye: 4100  
Matt: 4000**

She ignored the pain and looked at the card she drew, and playing it immediately. "I play Pot of Greed." She said casually as the pot appeared, letting her draw two cards, both of which caused her to smile. "I summon Whirlwind Prodigy!"

In a tornado a brunette boy wearing a green shirt, adorned with a belt for his dagger, and beige pants appeared, he had a pointed green hat on his head. He also had a mischievous grin on him as the winds faded (4/**1500**/1600).

"And now I'll overlay both of them!" The two monster glowed green and shot up to form two shine balls and a green portal opened up in front of Kaye. _"Here comes the bird that defied nature! Xyz summon! Lightning Chidori!"_

A sword on a pedestal rose from the portal, causing confusion amongst the crowd. The sword seems to emit a small amount of light blue static electricity, the kind one would see on a small tesla coil. They soon started to grow in number and soon in strength and caused a burst. In a flash, a bird made of electricity appeared from the sword, releasing a powerful and warped 'caw' as it cackled at each movement, surrounded by the green orbs, its Xyz materials (4/**1900**/1600).

"When he's Xyz summoned, I can target a set card on your field and place it to the bottom of your deck." Matt looked genuinely concerned for a moment before Lightning Chidori released a lightning bolt from its mouth, striking the facedown and forced it to the bottom of Matt's deck. "And I can detach an Xyz material from Chidori to move a card on your field to the top of your deck!"

His eyes widened as the bird opened it mouth, releasing another lightning bolt that struck the Dark Magician Girl, shocking her enough to return her to Matt's deck, clearing it completely.

"And Lightning Chidori can still attack! Attack directly with Lightning Flux!"

The lightning bird opened its mouth again and Matt expected a lightning bolt, but this time, the bird fired a full on salvo of it, taking his lifepoints down.

**Kaye: 4100  
Matt: 2100**

Kaye smiled at the result. "I place a card facedown and end my turn."

Matt smiled anyway, despite the loss and drew a card. "I have my work cut out for me…" He said to himself. "Alright then plan B! First I'll summon Magical Exemplar!"

A woman slowly rose from the ground, having long black hair, a golden neckpiece that matched her bracelets and headpiece, she wore a green robe and a lighter, slightly blue dress with a dark middle, showing inscriptions that glowed green on the fabric. She wore a light blue-green belt with a golden ring and chain on it. She had a kind, sagely look on her face, calmly looking the lightning bird (4/**1700**/1400).

"And now I play Card of Sanctity, letting us both draw until we have 6 cards!" Matt said as he drew 6 cards while Kaye drew 5. "And since I played a spell card, Magical Exemplar gains two spell counters."

A black stone with a golden insignia appeared above the Exemplar's palms, hovering softly [2 SPELL COUNTERS].

"And now I play Silent Doom, bringing back a Normal monster in my graveyard in face up defense mode!" A card slid out and Matt placed it on the field. "I summon the Dark Magician in defense mode!"

A yellow hand appeared on ground, and on it was a magician's seal. The legendary spellcaster rose from the seal, showing the growing crowd his power, but the hand glowed eerily, forcing the Magician to kneel, soon the hand disappeared, leaving only the Dark Magician (7/2500/**2100**).

"Since I played another spell card, Magical Exemplar gains 2 more spell counters!" Another pair of stones appeared, this time it appeared above the first set [4 SPELL COUNTERS]. "And now I remove three Spell Counters to summon a Level 3 Spellcaster from my hand! The tuner monster, Conductor Magician!"

3 of Magical Exemplar's stones floated away [1 SPELL COUNTER] to another monster spot and changed to red stones with yellow stars. It stood in a triangle formation, a red line connecting it. It formed a thin veil of red light and a magician materialized in the middle of it. The magician wore a tall, green conductor's hat, with a black stone resting on it, a black feather behind it. Her outfit was an all green coat, its tail split in two and it had black trims and 6 black buttons, all of which were hollow in the middle. She wore beige pants and black knee high boots. Her baton was light green similar to the color of the rings for Synchro monsters (3/**1000**/1000).

"And now I tune my Level 3 Conductor Magician and Level 4 Magical Exemplar!" Matt announced as the Conductor raised her baton, giving it a series of gestures and conjuring 3 rings as she disappeared. Magical Exemplar turned to 4 stars that aligned themselves to the center of the rings.

"_The years of hardship and training now come into fruition, show them the might of your arcane mastery! Synchro Summon, the mightiest magician, Arcanite Magician!" _

The center of the ring lit up in a beam of light, summoning a purple skinned, white haired magician in a white cloak with purple patterns on it. He had a hood which forked at the sides, creating what looked like horns. The shoulders of the cloak were large and pointed. The inside of the cloak was a dark red color and an inner cloak. He carried a green staff with a bright yellow orb resting on it (7/**400**/1800).

"When he's Synchro summoned, he gains 2 spell counters and for each one on him, he gains 1000 attack points!"

Kaye gasped as two of the stone appeared, circling the green orb at the top of the staff as the magician gained power (7/400-**2400**/1800).

"In addition, since I used Conductor Magician as a tuner monster for a Spellcaster, I can add a Spell Card to my hand from my deck." Matt opened his deck and picked a card, shuffled his deck and placed it back in its place. "Finally, I play Thousand Knives, since Dark Magician is on the field, I can target one of your monsters and destroy it!" Matt said as the Dark Magician stood up, raised his staff and conjured an obscenely large amount of knives, all of which aimed for Lightning Chidori. On his command, the knives moved, all of it hit Lightning Chidori, who let out one screech before exploding.

"And now, Arcanite Magician! Attack directly with Arcane Flash!" Arcanite Magician raised his staff at the command and the orb glowed brighter and fired a beam at Kaye, who flinched at the force of the attack.

**Kaye: 1700  
Matt: 2100**

The crowd gasped at the result and how her lead dropped so quickly. "I set a card facedown. Your move." Matt smirked.

Kaye regained her composure, drawing her card and glowed red, forced to pay Degenerate circuit's cost.

**Kaye: 1200  
Matt: 2100**

"I play Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy my Degenerate Circuit." The face up card shattered to pixels. "And now I play Monster Reborn to bring back your Conductor Magician!"

Everyone gave a puzzled look at the monster choice and the Conductor appeared on Kaye's side of the field (3/**1000**/1000).

"Next I play Temptation of the Goddess! Now I can look at your hand and if there's a Level 4 or below monster, I can summon it to your side of the field."

Rings of light appeared from the card and revealed Matt's hand, showing the Dark Magician Girl, Mage Power, Sage's Stone and…

Old Vindictive Magician!

Matt grumbled as the spellcaster appeared on the field, holding its staff and hunching over, despite being in attack mode (2/**450**/600).

"Since you control two monsters of the same attribute, I can special summon Alector, Sovereign of Birds!" Kaye announced. A card appeared and from it came a humanoid creature wearing silver armor and possessing red wings. The armor he wore possessed sharp features and a few red jewels scattered on places of his armor. His helmet had the shape of a bird and styled to look intimidating (6/**2400**/2000).

Matt squinted. "What are you playing…?" He mused.

"And now for my Normal Summon, Harbinger of Guides, Hercinia!" Kaye announced. They heard a bird cry and a petrel-like bird, with glowing silvery feathers, swooped in and landed on Kaye's shoulder, cawing (3/800/**800**). The bird jumped down from her shoulder and landed on the ground, hiding behind its wings. "When Hercinia is removed from play or sent to the graveyard, I gain 400 lifepoints for each card in my hand. And now, it's over!" Kaye's facedown card flipped up and the crowd gasped.

"No!" Matt shouted as Icarus Attack flipped up. Hercinia shined as it was tributed, silver sparkles rained down on Kaye, increasing her lifepoints due to Hercinia's effect.

**Kaye: 3200  
Matt: 2100**

In its wake, two lightning bolts broke out and hit Matt's facedown, Pitch Black Power Stone, and the Dark Magician, causing both to shatter to pixels.

"And once per turn, Alector can negate the effect of one card on the field, and I pick your Arcanite Magician!" The orb on the magician's staff flickered before it died out, weakening the Magician (7/2400-**400**/1800). "Conductor Magician, attack the Old Vindictive Magician!"

The Conductor produced three green rings and flung it at the Magician, slicing through it and causing it to explode.

**Kaye: 3200  
Matt: 1550**

"Alector, attack Arcanite Magician with Storm Lance!" This time, the birdman moved and flapped his wings creating a concentrated wind spear that stabbed the weakened magician, exploding on contact and depleting Matt's lifepoints.

**Kaye: 3200  
Matt: 0**

"Alright Kaye!" Carrie cheered after a moment of stunned silence. The umber haired girl returned to her timid state.

"What were you two arguing about in the first place?" Bastion asked.

Matt walked over to Kaye and the two Ras looked at each other. The two looked away, thinking hard but in the end, they both shrugged.

"Good game by the way." Matt complimented. "Thought I had you there."

"I see, that was why you set up Pitch Black Power Stone. I have to admit, I thought you did have me there." Kaye replied.

"Although, that was a long way to summon one monster." Matt noted.

"I was thinking I should set myself up for the hurt with Hercinia, in case your facedown would've wrecked everything." Kaye explained and Matt nodded, understanding.

"Anyway…" Carrie interjected. "C'mon let's go!"

"Go where?" Kaye asked,

Carrie scoffed, as if the answer was obvious. "Explore the island, duh!"

Kaye shook her head, "I'm kinda beat, besides I'm not done with my stuff." She said.

Carrie pouted and sighed. "Fine… Bastion how 'bout it?"

"I rather not. I was in the middle of setting up some materials in my room." The intellectual Ra replied.

"Oh, dude lemme help with that." Matt offered. "Saw them in front of your room, they looked heavy."

Carrie stuck her tongue out, seeing no one's available. "Fine I'll go myself then!" She said defiantly, turning around and walking out the Ra dorm, walking past the dispersed crowd, most of which were impressed by the duel.

* * *

The duel took up a lot of time, meaning she'll have to see more some other time and headed for the main building. Along the way however, she passed by Jaden, Syrus and a third boy wearing the Red jacket. He had semi long-black hair that went just a bit below his shoulders and kept in a ponytail and brown eyes. "It's in the air Sy, can't you just smell it?" Jaden asked.

"Maybe if the pollen count was lower…" Syrus sighed and looked around, seeing Carrie. "Oh, hey." He greeted.

"Heya, guess you three are heading in there too?" She asked.

"You bet! Can't you tell? There's some duel going on!" Jaden replied excitedly.

"Well we are in a Dueling school, no doubt there was a duel already." The third guy pointed out. "By the way I'm Daryn Jader."

"I'm Carrie Robbins." Carrie introduced and the two shook hands briefly. "Speaking of duels, there was duel in Ra."

"Really? Who dueled?" Jaden asked, walking towards the main building.

"Kaye and another Ra kid named Matt, used Spellcasters and boy were we in for a treat, we saw him bring out the Dark Magician Girl and the Dark Magician!"

"No way really?" Syrus gasped. "Who won that?"

"Kaye did! It was pretty close, if she didn't make that draw, she would've been toast!"

"Kaye?" Daryn asked.

"Oh yeah." Carrie nodded, realizing Daryn doesn't know. "Kaye Aoki, Ra yellow student, uses a Wind and Winged Beast deck, I think she has more stuff hiding in her deck too…" While in the building, the Ra explained to the three of Kaye and Matt's duels, particularly her favorite parts and the Dark Magician. Jaden expressed most of the excitement of the group.

"I have got to duel this guy!" Jaden exclaimed.

"Well the year just started, I'm sure you'll get the chance to." Daryn shrugged as the group of four walked to a large room. In the middle was an arena, surrounded by stands for other students to watch, Daryn let out a whistle.

"It looks state of the art." Syrus complimented but then a worried look crept on to his face. "But you think we're allowed here?"

"Don't worry, we're students here, it's our campus." Jaden pointed out but was quickly interrupted.

"Wrong, this is the Obelisk Blue campus!"

"No slackers of any kind allowed!"

The group turned to see a pair of Obelisk Blue students, Torimaki and Mototani. They both jumped down from the arena to the entrance where they were.

"Really?" Daryn asked, stepping forward and frowned.

"Yeah, really. Look up there, this is Obelisk territory!" Mototani pointed to a crest above the entrance, everyone turned to see a plate depicting a demon looking like a simplified version of the mentioned Egyptian God, painted a blue-teal color.

"Sorry, we were just looking around, but we'll leave now right guys?" Syrus apologized.

"Nah, we don't have to leave…" Jaden disagreed before looking at the two Obelisks cheerfully and pointed to their general direction, "Unless one of you guys agrees to duel me I'll be a guest duelist!"

The two boys gasped when they saw Jaden's face. "Hey you're that kid!" Torimaki realized.

Mototani turned to the stands. "Hey Chazz, that applicant who beat Doctor Crowler is here!" He called out. "Check it out!"

From the stands came Chazz Princeton, the black, spiky haired teen in the Obelisk Blue coat, looking down on the rest with a flat face. However, he soon glared at the crew with judgmental eyes, assessing they were no better than rocks, Carrie frowned at that. Jaden however waved at him. "Hey, what's up? My name's Jaden and he's… Chuzz was it?"

The group suppressed their laughter while Chazz gritted his teeth. "His name's Chazz Princeton!" Torimaki corrected. "And he was the number one duelist at Duelist Prep School, so you be sure to pay the proper respect!"

Mototani nodded. "Yeah, he's gonna be the next King of Games, the best duelist IN THE WORLD!"

Jaden scoffed and crossed his arms. "Impossible…" He stated matter-of-factly, causing the Obelisks to gasp.

"What did you just say?" Torimaki questioned in disbelief.

"I said it's impossible for him to be the next King of Games… 'cuz that's exactly what I'm gonna be!" Jaden explained simply and the Obelisks looked at each other, laughing hysterically.

"You? A Slifer Slacker, the next King of Games? That'll be the day!" Torimaki said between laughs.

"Well I don't see you two becoming the next King of Games…" Carrie pointed out.

"You watch it too Ra! Second bests don't get to be the King of Games!" Mototani countered. "Your entrance duel was a fluke!"

"You talk a big game, but you're not showing anyone anything." Carrie rolled her eyes. "And please, a fluke? Wait till this fluke mops the floor with you." She said confidently while Mototani only looked at her, his face tense.

"A duel should settle this nicely." Daryn smirked. "Or are you two scared?"

"Why you…"

"Can it you two!"

Everyone turned to Chazz, who got up from his seat and leaned over the wall to get a better view of them. "Maybe they're both right, the Slifer did beat Crowler after all, and that rare monster of his. And the Ra did use two different sets of monsters effectively. I guess it takes _some_ skills to pull that off."

"Aw, thanks!" Jaden grinned but Carrie was unconvinced.

"Or was it luck?" Chazz interrupted. "I say we figure out both of these right now. One after the other, I'll take you both on."

Jaden grinned, looked at Carrie, who nodded in agreement.

"I like the sound of that…" She said.

"Bring it!" Jaden added.

Jaden went first, and Chazz walked down the stairs, both headed for the arena. "Well this looks like a motley crew…" Was what interrupted their trip and they turned to face two Obelisk Blue students, both girls, the first being Alexis Rhodes and the second, a senior named Danny Jones-Cain. Danny's back faced the group as she yawned, exhausted for some reason so everyone's focus shifted to Alexis.

"Wow, who's she…" Syrus whispered silently.

"I dunno, but she seems ok." Daryn replied silently with a slight shrug.

Chazz reacted to Alexis' arrival and smirked. "Hey Alexis, you here to see me get two birds with one duel? I promise they'll both be short, but fun nonetheless."

"We're here to tell you guys about the Obelisk welcome dinner, you're late." Alexis warned, glaring at them.

"Right…" Chazz muttered and leapt over the railing to the floor. "Come on guys." He called out and the three Obelisks walked away. Alexis rolled her eyes at the three retreating figures.

"Sorry 'bout that, not all Obelisks are like them…" Danny explained nonchalantly, turning around.

"Chazz is just a big jerk to anyone below Obelisk." Alexis sighed and shook her head.

"Nah, it's no big deal."

Everyone turned to Jaden, confused, but the one who was most confused was Alexis, who gave him a puzzled look.

"Those types don't really bother me at all." Jaden waved off. "Besides I could take him down in one turn!"

Danny smirked at that. "Really? One turn?"

"Well, two turns… Ok, maybe two and a half turn." Jaden corrected, making Alexis laugh, and even Syrus joined in. "Hey, what's so funny?"

"Never mind, but the Slifer Welcome Dinner's about to start too, you don't want to be late right?" Alexis stated.

Daryn checked his watch and looked at the Slifers. "She's right, if we don't move now we'll be late!"

Jaden nodded. "Well we're gonna go and get some food before it's all gone!" He said, he ran out followed closely by Daryn.

"Wait up!" Syrus called out as he chased the other two duelists.

However Jaden skidded to a stop, Daryn missed this and skidded even further away from Jaden. Jaden ran in place, turning around. "By the way we never got your names!"

Alexis blinked and smiled. "My name's Alexis, Alexis Rhodes!" She introduced.

"Forget me, who're you?" Danny asked

"Jaden Yuki!" He replied and continued to run, Syrus followed closely but Daryn stuck around for a second. "See ya around!"

"I'm Daryn Jader by the way!" Daryn shouted and ran after Syrus.

"Wait we were introducing each other?" Syrus asked. "Why didn't you introduce me?"

Carrie checked her PDA, realizing its 17:58 and flinched. "I'm late! Well nice meeting you Alexis!"

"This will be a fun year." Alexis said after the four left. Danny was the first to turn around and the second Obelisk followed as the two walked to their dorms.

* * *

The Ra headmaster raised his glass after introducing himself and explaining the lack of the headmistress. "Now that I've gotten myself out of the way, would anyone like to tell us all about each other?"

Matt started first, standing up and a few conversations were exchanged about the Magician duelist. "I'm Matt Roberts, and I guess some of you remember my duel earlier." He said with a wink.

"A duel already? What a way to start a year!" Sartyr commented as Matt sat back down. "Alright, who's next?"

Kaye stood up this time. "I'm Kaye Aoki, I… tend to be cautious." She said plainly, leaving more to be desired. Yet still, others remembered how she defeated the Magicians today. "Ah! I also dueled Matt earlier today." She said before sitting back down, with another positive feedback from Sartyr.

Bastion was next, standing up and explaining himself. "I'm Bastion Misawa, I have numerous equations for the numerous decks I possess." He said promptly before sitting back down.

Carrie was the last, or at least the last that she knew of. "I'm Carrie Robbins, and I guess I'm kinda lucky!" She introduced before sitting back down.

She then learned of the rest, such as a boy named Dimitri who idolized famous dueling icons. A large boy named Beauregard who enjoys art and a small shy boy next to him named Brier who faltered in the middle of his introduction and sat back down. Those were the few prominent ones she could remember as the faces passed by.

They finally ate, complimentary of Professor Sartyr, who was an outstanding chef. Carrie smiled, glad to be in Ra and Duel Academy in general as she watched the crowd, such as Beauregard and Brier introducing each other, Matt conversing with Bastion and Dimitri doing an impersonation in front of a group of students. The atmosphere was a wonderfully lively one, she concluded that Ra Yellow is a wonderful dorm.

* * *

However, not the same can be said for Slifer Red. The meal for each of the students were nothing but a bowl of rice, flimsy sardines, what appears to be chopped pineapples and some… brown... chunky thing… Regardless of what it was, everyone eyed it in disbelief.

"_This is our 'fancy welcome dinner'?"_ One boy asked.

"_Forget that, check out our headmaster!"_ Another said and everyone looked to see a fat brown cat with dark brown stripes and a light underbelly. It stretched and mewled before curling up again next to its bushy tail.

"_It's a cat!"_ Everyone sang out in disbelief. Suddenly the cat looked back towards the doorway and from it, a tall man as flimsy as the sardines appeared. He has long black hair and eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses and wore a white shirt, a red tie and black pants. He smiled kindly at the relieves students, relieved they won't be cared for by a cat.

"Hello children, I'm Professor Banner." The man greeted in with a slight German accent. "Before we eat, I'd like to apologize, I had to cook for the girls too. Now, would anyone like to introduce themselves-"

However he was interrupted by Jaden, stuffing his mouth with rice and sardines. "This stuff's good!" He complimented.

"Jaden, I think we're supposed to say something about ourselves first…" Syrus whispered.

"He's right, the Professor's coming over…" Daryn added then looked up behind Syrus. "Jay he's here…"

Syrus turned around while Jaden looked up. He was still smiling at the Slifers as he loomed over them. "Well since some of us don't feel like waiting…"

"Let's just eat!"

* * *

Dinner went smoothly for everyone, even the Slifers. Afterwards, some hung out with their new friends until curfew hits, particularly Jaden, Syrus and Daryn, in the former two's dorm room. Jaden sat down on the floor of his room, patting his belly. "Boy I'm stuffed, that Professor Banner sure can cook."

Syrus was preparing some tea, he turned around to look at Jaden. "Yeah and he seems like a pretty nice guy."

"Yeah." Daryn nodded. "The food wasn't as great as Jaden thought but he's a good guy."

Syrus passed around the tea, receiving thanks from the two, and looked up to Chumley. "Hey Chumley, want some tea?"

"Did I say I was thirsty?" Chumley replied gruffly, shocking Syrus and upsetting him.

"Hey he just asked if you wanted some tea, no need to snap at him." Jaden scolded.

"It's ok Jaden, I'm used to it." Syrus waved off.

"Duh, tea makes you wet the bed." Chumley added matter-of-factly, making the three look up to him. "Not that I do, or ever did, I mean… Whatever!"

Before anyone got the chance to ask, Jaden's PDA rang, a sign that he has mail. He opened it to reveal a video message, from Chazz Princeton.

"_Hey Slifer Slacker, don't think you're off the hook._" Came Chazz's voice. "_Tonight at midnight at the Arena, it's on, I'll duel you then the Ra. Oh and why don't we make it interesting? Winner takes the losers best card."_

The message ended and Jaden smirked. "Cool, I guess I'll get to duel at that arena after all."

Chumley turned around and looked to the floor. "If that's Chazz you're dueling, all you've got is trouble." He warned before turning around again.

* * *

Carrie just finished watching the video message, slightly different from Jaden's message but conveyed the same message anyway. "Is he stupid, it says on the guidelines we can't duel in any of the conditions he set up… Who'd agree to that-" She stopped halfway, realizing Jaden would most likely say yes to those conditions. She got up, put on a jacket over her uniform and walked outside.

She was right to put on her jacket, it was cold outside but the trip to the main building shouldn't take too long…

"Ra Yellow's that way." She heard a voice say and turned around slowly, seeing Alexis near the woods. "What are you doing?"

"It's uh…" Carrie paused, running through what she wanted to say in her mind but found it ridiculous. Instead, she took out her PDA and played the video message and handed it to Alexis. "Here."

The Obelisk looked at the video, frowning. "You're gonna duel him?" Alexis asked after she finished watching the video, rather apprehensively.

Carrie raised her hands in defense. "No, no, I won't! But, I think Jaden's gonna duel…"

"How would you know?" Alexis asked skeptically.

Carrie shrugged. "But think can you really see him missing out on a challenge?"

Alexis thought back, putting as much as she can remember about Jaden, his excitement at the entrance duel, the way he didn't back down despite the staggering odds, how eager he was to duel at the arena, it all pieced together to one conclusion.

Jaden would be careless enough to duel in the given conditions.

"Alright I'll bite." Alexis agreed reluctantly. "What're we standing around here for?"

The Ra nodded and walked first towards Academy Building.

* * *

"Duel!"

**Jaden: 4000  
Chazz: 4000**

"Alright Slacker…" Chazz drew his sixth card. "I'll start things off by summoning Reborn Zombie in defense mode, and this facedown card."

What appeared before them was a zombie, once a muscular man but now nothing but a decaying zombie with unruly white hair and most of his flesh gone, leaving only his bones and tattered rags (3/1000/**1600**).

"I guess that's one way to start a duel." Jaden said as he drew. "But I'm gonna start even bigger! With my Spell Card Polymerization, fusing Avian and Burstinatrix from my hand to summon Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"

The fusion hero from the entrance duel appeared and everyone saw the now familiar shape of the winged hero (6/**2100**/1200). "Told you I'd star big didn't I?"

Chazz simply chuckled. "I was hoping you would."

"And why's that…?" Jaden asked after realizing the implications that might follow.

"Because that facedown I set up, it was a Trap Card! One called Chthonian Polymer!" He called out and the facedown flipped up to show a man wrapped in flames.

"What's Chtonian Polymer?" Syrus asked.

"Doesn't sound good…" Daryn muttered.

"You're right, it doesn't! By tributing one of my monsters, I can take control of a fusion monster that was just summoned!" Chazz explained as Reborn Zombie disappeared in a flash. Afterwards, dark mist came from the card and wrapped itself around Flame Wingman, confused and shocked as he was forced onto Chazz's side. Eventually he stopped resisting and his coloration turned darker.

"Not my Wingman…" Jaden groaned at the loss of his monster.

"How did he know he should play that!" Syrus gasped.

Chazz laughed. "You're so predictable Jaden, you wouldn't stop talking about that monster at the exam, I knew you'd bring it out sooner or later."

"So what? Since that was a Special Summon, I can still bring out a monster from my hand." Jaden said but frowned slightly at his hand. _'Not that it'll help. Nothing in my hand can go against the Wingman…'_

'_Go on, summon a monster, after all, I haven't forgotten the Wingman's special ability…'_ Chazz grinned inwardly.

"Alright, I'll summon the Elemental Hero Clayman in Defense Mode!" Jaden declared as another hero appeared, a large golem like monster with a red dome for a head and some blue lines to symbolize his eyes (3/800/**2000**). "There, all set up…"

"Set up to get knocked down!" Chazz grinned as he drew a card. "Rise, Chthonian Soldier!" This time a man in dark armor and a dark blue loincloth appeared carrying a large sword and a shield(4/**1200**/1400).

"And now, Flame Wingman, attack with _Skydive Scorcher_!" Chazz commanded.

The controlled Hero rose into the air and after reaching a preferred height, dove down, drenched in flames. It hit the earth Hero, and shattered him to pixels. "And don't think I forgot about special Ability, Slacker! Now your lifepoints go down equal to the attack points of the destroyed monster!"

Flame Wingman appeared in front of Jaden and opened the dragon arm and released a flurry of flames that took a part of his lifepoints.

**Jaden: 3200  
Chazz: 4000**

"I'm not done yet! Chthonian Soldier, attack with _Windstorm Slash_!"

Before he could recover from the Wingman's special ability, Jaden felt the blade go through him and the soldier sliced him.

**Jaden: 2000  
Chazz: 4000**

"Jaden!" His friends cried out as the Slifer fell to his knees.

"Have you learned your place now, Slifer? You may have been someone back home, but here you're nothing but an amateur, you Slifer Slime!" He insulted as inserted a pair of facedown cards. "I end my turn with two facedown cards!"

Jaden laughed, silently and muffled, his shoulders shook and Chazz grinned even more. "Aw, what wrong, baby? Are you crying?" However he was fazed when he realized the crying was in fact, laughter.

Jaden lifted his head, his own grin on his face. "This is too fun!"

Chazz's stare grew even more bewildered. "What!"

"This is exactly what I came for, I mean the trash talking, the action, it's all so great!"

"What the…"

"Wow, I guess he wasn't kidding when he said he doesn't get bothered by these things…" Daryn blinked slowly.

Jaden continued anyway, drawing his card. "I summon Elemental Hero Sparkman in Attack mode!" Jaden's new monster was a man in a blue and yellow outfit with lightning motives on it and a blue helmet, he crackled with electricity as he appeared on the field (4/**1600**/1400).

"Alright Sparkman, attack Chthonian Soldier with Static Shockwave!" Sparkman jumped and aimed his fist at the Soldier, charged with electricity and shot a large thunderbolt at the Soldier, shattering him.

**Jaden: 2000  
Chazz: 3600**

However, from the dust, came the sword of the Soldier, rising up and aimed itself to Jaden and struck him.

**Jaden: 1600  
Chazz: 3600**

"Still think you won that one? Whenever Chthonian Soldier is destroyed, you take the same amount of damage to your lifepoints as I did!" Chazz grinned. "Only difference is, you barely have any left to spare!"

Jaden grunted. "It's only a matter of time 'till your best card goes to me Slacker…" Chazz laughed triumphantly.

"This isn't over yet." Jaden reminded, placing a card facedown. "I play a facedown and end my turn."

"Play whatever you want Slacker, my next attack will finish you off!" Chazz drew a card but he didn't look at it. "Flame Wingman, attack!"

The Winged hero jumped up again, diving and covered in flames. Sparkman jumped up too and countered by forcing the Wingman's arms with his own.

"Now it's my turn! I play my facedown!"

"A trap?!" Chazz asked in disbelief.

"It's Mirror Gate!" Syrus said in awe. "… Uh, what does it do?"

"What it does is let me switch the ownership of two monsters in battle!" Jaden explained as a mirror appeared in front of Wingman and Sparkman and some even behind the two heroes. The mirrors spun, confusing everyone, before it stopped and shattered, revealing the two heroes that switched places.

Their attack continued, and Wingman and Sparkman grappled each other. Sparks and flames were thrown all over as the two combatted their elements, until eventually, Wingman produced larger flames, defeating Sparkman.

"NO!" Chazz shouted at the loss.

**Jaden: 1600  
Chazz: 3100**

"And don't forget, Flame Wingman's special ability kicks in! You take damage to your lifepoints equal to the destroyed monster's attack points!" Jaden reminded as Wingman flew over to Chazz's side and opened the dragon arm in front of him, hitting the Obelisk with flames

**Jaden: 1600  
Chazz: 1500**

"There you guys are!"

Everyone turned around to see Carrie and Alexis, the latter's arms crossed and her eyes looked at Chazz, equally cross. The Obelisk turned away, back to the duel.

"They're dueling already?" Carrie sighed and looked at the scores. "Whoa they're all evened up!"

"Lucky shot." Chazz clicked his tongue. "But it's still my turn and I play the spell card, Chthonian Blast! Since you destroyed one of my monsters, I get to destroy one of yours!"

"And that's not all…" Alexis muttered, "Jaden takes damage equal to half of the destroyed monster's attack points!"

A swirling vortex appeared under Flame Wingman and surrounded the hero, forcing him down as he weakened and shattered to pixels.

**Jaden: 550  
Chazz: 1500**

"And now I activate my trap! Call of the Haunted!" Chazz continued as his facedown flipped up. "This lets me bring back a monster from the graveyard, like my Chthonian Soldier! But he's not staying for long, because now I tribute him to summon Mefist the Infernal General!"

Now a knight carrying a large axe atop a fully armored horse appeared, his cape billowing behind him (5/**1800**/1700).

"Not bad." Jaden said confidently.

"Not bad?" Chazz asked and smirked. "You're something else, you know that Slacker? Acting confident and all, but your lousy monsters won't get you out of this jam."

Jaden looked at his hand and saw Winged Kuriboh. "He's wrong Kuriboh, I know it, because my monsters and I, have a bond!" Jaden drew his card and smiled. _'Speaking of...'_

Alexis' ear suddenly perked and she looked behind her to the entrance. Carrie looked behind her too and heard footsteps. "Damn it!" She hissed silently. "Guys, we're not supposed to be here!" She warned, slightly whispering.

"Huh?" Jaden asked.

Alexis pulled out her PDA and read from it. "It says so here, no off-hour arena dueling. And no ante duels too! Chazz knew that…" The Obelisk's face turned red. "Guess he didn't tell you huh?"

Torimaki leaned forward from the ground. "C'mon Chazz let's go!"

"Hmph…" Chazz said arrogantly and the monster on his side of the field disappeared. "Fine."

"Hey, wait a minute, the duel isn't over yet!" Jaden protested.

"Yeah it is Slacker, I saw what I needed to see." Chazz jumped down the platform and looked at Jaden. "You're a sorry duelist and you beating Crowler was a fluke."

"But…"

"Jaden we gotta go now!" Syrus countered, rushing the taller Slifer.

Jaden growled and grumbled, crossing his arms. "This stinks!"

* * *

After a lot of close calls, a lot of sneaking, a lot of grumbling and a lot of looking around, the group finally found the exit that was obscure enough that Campus Security would most likely end up far away from it. Along the way however…

"Ow!" Carrie winced as her toe stubbed a rock that jutted out oddly on the ground. "What the…?"

"You're stubborn aren't you?" Alexis asked Jaden snapping Carrie out of her pain for a while.

"Only about my dueling." Jaden pouted.

Syrus and Daryn looked at him oddly but then the latter looked at Alexis. "Anyway thanks for showing us the back way out!

Alexis smile and nodded. "No problem, I'm sorry you didn't get to finish your duel with Chazz."

"And I'm sorry I didn't get to beat him…" Carrie muttered.

Jaden simply shrugged. "Nah, no big deal, I knew how it ended."

"Actually, it looked like it could've gone either way." Daryn pointed out.

"Hah, no way! Not after I drew this!" Jaden showed them the card he was gripping on to so tightly as they made their hasty escape, Monster Reborn, making the group gasp in retaliation as Jaden gave a confident smirk.

"I get it, you would've brought back Flame Wingman to finish off Mefist!" Syrus realized.

"Yup!" Jaden nodded. "Well it's pretty late, we better get back, see you tomorrow!"

The three Slifers walked away from the two girls. Alexis blinked in surprise. "That Jaden is one lucky kid." She praised.

"Nah, I think he's powerful in his own way…" Carrie stated her own opinion. "Luck's my game! Anyway I'm gonna head back, see ya!" Carrie waved at Alexis who lingered around as she watched them go.

'_This is going to be one interesting year…' _Alexis thought with a smile on her face.

* * *

**Wheehoo! 25 pages and 10 000+ words! I hope I did an alright job with Matt and Kaye's duel! And? Introducing the characters in general (I really hope)!**

**Note about Card of Sanctity, I'm using the anime and manga effect! Sorry!**

**Also as you've read it, the dorms are split in two, some part, I need an OC or a pair of OCs willing to be Ra Yellow's Headmistress!**

**ANYWAY**

**********Card Feature section! Any fan made card goes here (by the way, you can submit a card!) **********

**Flying Kamakiri #3**

**Wind/Insect/Effect  
(4/1600/700)**

(It stands on both legs like Flying Kamakiri 1 but has the tail of a mantis like Flying Kamakiri 2. Its arms are more mantis like than claw like)

When this card leaves the field in anyway and sent to the Graveyard: You can Special Summon 1 WIND monster with 1500 or less ATK from your Deck.

**Conductor Magician**

**Dark/Spellcaster/Tuner  
(3/1000/1300)**

When this card is used as a Tuner monster for a Spellcaster-type Synchro monster, you can add a spell card from your deck to your hand.

(Created by Me)

**See ya!**


	3. Duel Me to the Moon

**Here we go Chapter Three! Sorry it took a while, holidays started and I end up sleeping all the time. I'd like to apologize in advance, math is not my forte, I can't even remember the multiplication table.**

**Enjoy :^)!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh GX or any of the cards that I did not make. All OCs belong to their owners. All original cards belong either to me or the cards creators.**

**Chapter 3: Love Spell**

It was Friday, the last school day in Duel Academy and first period was Dueling 101. The class was still in high spirits and Crowler jumped right into the lesson.

"Alright let's review… Alexis Rhodes, explain to the class about Monster cards!" Crowler asked as the Obelisk girl stood up in her seat and immediately began.

"Monster cards can be grouped into Normal Monster cards, Fusion Monster cards, Ritual Monster cards, Synchro Monster cards, Xyz Monster cards and Effect Monster cards. Normal Monsters and Effect Monsters may have a secondary type such as Toon, Union, Tuner and Gemini." Alexis answered Dr. Crowler's question.

"Yes very good Alexis!" Crowler praised as the blonde nodded humbly. "Geoffrey Alder, explain to the class about Spell Cards!"

Another Obelisk stood up, a tall guy with broad shoulders but an otherwise average build, collar length dirty blonde hair that all pointed to one side, fair skin and blue eyes hidden by brown rectangular glasses. "Spell cards are used to give the user an advantage or to give the opponent some kind of weakness. They can be used on the turn they are drawn or set. There are Normal Spells, Continuous Spells, Equip Spells, Quick-Play Spells, Field spells and Ritual Spells."

"Excellent, as expected from my two Obelisks!" Crowler praised again and Geoffrey simply sat down. "Here's an easy one, Bastion Misawa, explain to the class about trap cards."

Bastion almost looked insulted but stood up anyway. "Trap Cards are cards that must be set in the Spell and Trap zone before being used, usually in response to an action by the duelist or the opponent. There are Normal Trap cards, Continuous Trap cards and Counter Trap cards."

"Alright, alright good, sit back down Bastion." Crowler instructed. Carrie rolled her eyes at the lesser treatment of her fellow Ra. However, Crowler noticed her gesture and called her out. "Carrie Robbins, would you please share to the class about Trap Monsters?"

Carrie stood up promptly. "Trap Monsters are a type of Continuous Trap Cards that are Special Summoned as Monsters after its activation. They occupy both a Monster Card zone and a Spell and Trap zone." Carrie explained.

"Brief and slightly incomplete, but a good effort anyway. Sit down." Crowler ordered as Carrie sunk back to her seat. "Who should we question next…? You! Syrus Truesdale!"

Crowler directed himself to the shy Slifer boy who stood up almost immediately. "Y-Yes sir!"

"Explain to the class what a Field Spell is, please." Crowler asked.

Syrus was evidently shaking in his place. "U-Um, a Field Spell is a-a-a thing that effects the… thing that is… uh…"

"_Even Pre-Duelers know the answer to that ya Slifer Slacker!"_ An Obelisk boy in the crowd shouted, causing majority of the Obelisks to laugh and giggle at the blue haired boy's expense. Alexis sighed and looked away while Chazz grinned in his seat

"Jeez what's up with these guys…" Kaye muttered, her arms crossed as she eyed the Obelisks and some of the Ras who were smiling amusedly at Syrus' shyness.

"N-No I know this it's uh… uh…!" Syrus began to blush out of embarrassment.

"Relax Sy, you totally got this!" Jaden assured.

Syrus had frozen in place however, earning an amused look from Crowler himself. "I think not! Sit down." He said and Syrus moved, sitting down wordlessly. "Now can someone please explain what a Field Spell is? Preferably someone not in red?"

This caused yet another stream of giggles amongst the students. "Man I blew it, I made all the Slifers look bad…" He muttered.

"You know something teach?" Everyone turned to Jaden who spoke carelessly. "You shouldn't be making fun of the Slifers. I mean, I'm a Slifer and I beat you so… when you make fun of the reds, you're making fun of yourself!" Jaden concluded and the Slifers and some Ras laughed while Crowler bit down his handkerchief. Daryn however laughed a little bit too hard, causing the Obelisk teacher to glare daggers at both him and Jaden.

'_That's it! I won't let these Slackers sully the students of this school any longer! I'll see to it that they're expelled here immediately!'_ Crowler thought.

* * *

The next teacher of the day was Professor Banner. "As some of you may know, my name is Professor Lyman Banner." Banner greeted. "I specialize in some of the lesser known tactics in the world of duel monsters, some of which may be unnatural. Now Duel Alchemy is…"

"By the way…" Syrus whispered to Jaden, who yawned as the Professor continued his lecture. "Thanks Jay."

"Sure no problem but, for what?" Jaden asked.

"For sticking up for me!" Syrus replied a little too loud.

"Guys… he might have to do it again…" Daryn whispered, still looking at Banner who was now looking at the front row Slifers.

"Syrus?" Banner called out and the Slifer immediately stood up nervously.

"Uh, y-yes?"

"Do me a favor and pick up Pharaoh will you?" Banner asked lightly.

Syrus tilted his head. "Pharaoh?" He parroted.

"Unless you are minoring as a scratch post." Banner joked as Syrus felt something brush against his leg and saw the tabby cat that was at the welcome dinner. They laughed again as Syrus picked up the cat and returned it to Banner.

* * *

"What are you eating today?" Carrie asked as she picked up her belongings.

"Whatever it is, you're not getting any, I didn't make too much today." Kaye replied.

Carrie looked at Kaye, baffled. "I-I wasn't going to ask at all! Just… Genuine curiosity!" The Ra defended.

"Well that genuine curiosity often leads to curious disappearances…" Kaye said silently. "Besides, there's canteen food."

Carrie stuck out her tongue and shook her head. "No way! They're not as good as your food… I mean… my… food."

Kaye shook her head, sighing disapprovingly.

As the two girls went towards the exit, the PA crackled into life. _"Attention, students! There will be an exhibition duel between Daryn Jader and Mr. Ryuga, starting in 10 minutes at Duel Field 6! Attending to watch the duel is not mandatory, but it is recommended!"_ The PA speaker declared. _"Thank you, have a good day."_

The Slifer in question was at the stairs, at the base of the stairs Carrie and Kaye are on. "I have a duel?" He asked, blatantly unaware.

"And against an undefeated duelist too." Everyone now looked up to see Alexis, behind her was Geoffrey, the boy who explained Spell Cards to the class earlier this morning.

"Whaddya mean undefeated?" Jaden asked.

"Mr. Ryuga is a teacher trainee. To become a teacher here, one has to defeat 50 students in a duel. So far, he's defeated 49 students, making you his 50th opponent." Alexis explained.

"So if he beats 50, he's a teacher here?" Carrie asked for affirmation.

"If I'm not mistaken all the students were Obelisks…" Kaye said thoughtfully. "And first years..."

Alexis nodded. "Yeah you're right, Mindy dueled him yesterday and she seems really upset about it, she won't tell me why though…"

"Well…"

This time, everyone turned to Syrus, who looked like he regretted speaking up in the first place. Still, he continued what he started, opening his mouth again. "Rumor is, he takes the cards of the students that lost…"

"What?" Daryn asked, surprised and Syrus nodded.

The group however, seem to forget that Banner was there and the alchemy teacher shook his head. "Now, now children, those are nothing but rumors!" He interrupted. "Simply treat this as any other duel and you'll be fine." The teacher chided and Daryn nodded in agreement.

"He's right! A duel's a duel, and as duelists, we gotta duel!" Daryn declared determinately as he went to the other stairs and ran out, Jaden and Syrus following shortly after with the former yawning, recovering from sleeping.

* * *

Crowler was in his office, pleased after his announcement and was writing a letter.

"With that out of the way… How dare that Slacker make a mockery of me in front of MY students!" He exclaimed, seething with anger as he wrote the letter in the neatest handwriting he could create. "It'll be the last mistake he makes at this academy… shame the other got off so lightly…"

He looked at the letter, pleased and placed it in and envelope. He then took a mirror and a red lipstick, applying said lipstick to his lips. "The big kiss off!" He declared and kissed the envelope. "Now to wait after the duel…"

* * *

The seats were packed as everyone went to watch Daryn's duel. Carrie and Kaye were already seated behind Jaden, Syrus and Alexis while Matt and Bastion took a seat next to Kaye and Carrie.

"So… that's Mr. Ryuga?" Matt asked as they watched the black haired man with two grey streaks running down his salt and pepper hair, with black framed glasses hindering their view on his grey eyes. He wore a black blazer and black pants along with a white dress shirt and a blue tie. On his left arm was a duel disk and a golden ring on his middle finger with a red gem atop it. "He doesn't look so bad. I mean I don't mind if he's a teacher here…"

"Still that rumor is troubling me…" Bastion added.

"Rumor?" Matt asked.

"Syrus said that he takes the cards of the people he beat…" Kaye said briefly.

"Really?" The Magician duelist looked at the small Slifer who looked back and nodded reluctantly.

"Well I dunno guys, we can't base a person on rumors alone." Jaden said, looking behind him.

"Duel!"

And everyone's heads immediately snapped to the field as Mr. Ryuga and Daryn started.

**Daryn: 4000  
Mr. Ryuga: 4000**

"I'll start first!" Ryuga announced as he drew a card. "I place set a monster facedown and a pair of cards facedown…"

Three reversed cards appeared, one in the monster zone and the others in the spell and trap zone.

"And now I play Card Destruction, discarding our entire hand to draw the same number of cards.

The players did as the card said and drew their new cards, with both of them checking it.

"I end my turn, your move kid…" Ryuga passed over.

Daryn drew a card and inwardly smirked. "Alright… I'll summon Blazewing Butterfly in attack mode!"

On Daryn's side of the field came a butterfly with a red body and large blue eyes. Its wings, true to its name, was made of fire. As it flapped its wings, a bit of flames float off, although its wings remained intact and in its constantly shifting state (4/**1500**/1500).

"Blazewing Butterfly, attack his facedown!" Daryn commanded. "_Inferno Tempest_!"

The butterfly flapped its wings, spewing more of its flames which all headed for Ryuga's facedown. It was a Needle Worm, an insect with a purple body and green markings on the top, yellow dots with needles on the sides and three needles on its head (2/750/**600**). It endured the flames briefly before shattering to pixels.

"Good, now you have to drop the top 5 cards in your deck!" Ryuga announced as one of the needles of the bug fired from the graveyard. It hit Daryn's disk and made it spew out the top 5 cards in his deck. Daryn grabbed the cards before they fell, and moved them to the graveyard.

Daryn gritted his teeth as his deck slowly thinned. "I place one card facedown and end my turn…"

Ryuga drew his card and then his facedown flipped up. "I'll start with Soul Reversal to put Needle Worm back to the top of my deck." A light shined from his graveyard slot as a card slid out and Ryuga placed it on his deck. "And now I'll play Spellbook Inside the Pot, letting both of us draw three cards!"

The two duelists simultaneously drew their cards. "I place a monster facedown and two cards facedown."

"What's the point of that, it's probably Needle Worm again." Syrus asked as Daryn drew his card.

"Then he probably has a card that forces him to attack." Carrie offered her explanation as Ryuga announced the activation of his facedown, Battle Mania. "Like that…"

"Damn it…" Daryn said, looking at his cards.

"And now I play Purse with a Hole! This makes you discard a random card until you only have 5 left in your hand!"

A light shined over one of Daryn's cards and it went through his hand rapidly, until it stopped on the card on the far right and Daryn discarded that one. The light went again and this time settled on the card second from the left. And Daryn discarded that too.

"And for the rest of your turn, you can't you can't play any cards from your hand!" Ryuga added.

"Then I'll have to use a card already on the field…" Daryn pouted. "Well, Blazewing Butterfly, attack the facedown…"

The Butterfly flapped its wings and the flames went to the facedown, and they were right, it was a Needle Worm and it shattered to pixels.

"Don't think I'm letting you lose so little, I activate my other facedown, Double Loss! If you're about to send any number of cards to your graveyard from your deck, you have to double the number you send!" Ryuga's facedown flipped up to reveal a trap card, the image was a player with their cards flying all around them.

This time instead of one needle firing from his graveyard, two needles fired instead and hit Daryn's duel disk, forcing it to send out 10 cards as the Slifer picked it up and placed it in his graveyard.

"He's almost halfway through his deck and none of them even took damage yet!" Matt exclaimed.

"Not a bad tactic, but it did leave him open." Carrie noted.

"Yes but with Daryn's turn nearly over and that Purse with a Hole, he can't actually play anything." Bastion chimed in and everyone but Jaden grew slightly vexed by the Ra's comments against Daryn. "W-What?" He asked at his friends who all sighed and turned back to the duel.

"I play my facedown Birthright to summon a Normal monster in my graveyard in attack mode!" Daryn's facedown flipped up to reveal a trap card. "Thanks to your milling, I have a bunch of monsters in my graveyard! But I think I'll go for my Dark Valkyria!"

A light shined in front of Daryn, next to Blazewing Butterfly, and from it came a purple skinned woman wearing blue armor and a black dress. She had a pair of wings, both of which were black with red gems. Her eyes were red and she had a wicked smile on her (4/**1800**/1050).

"And since I haven't made a Normal Summon this turn, I Gemini summon Dark Valkyria!" Daryn announced. If she didn't look sinister before, she did now. The Valkyria's area completely dimmed and she almost faded into the dark mist like area, if it weren't for her orbs and glowing red eyes. "And once per turn, I can place a Spell Counter on her and she gains 300 attack points for each one!"

Now the red orbs were shielded by the trinity insignia of the spell counters as the Valkyria powered up (4/1800**-2100**/1050) [1 SPELL COUNTER].

"I end my turn." Daryn said with disdain.

Ryuga drew his card. "I play Trap Booster, discarding a card from my hand to activate one trap card from my hand!" Ryuga discarded a card and showed a trap card in his hand, revealing itself to be Call of the Haunted. "I summon Shield Worm in defense mode!"

The next worm was an abomination. It had a brown body, yellow underbelly and six arms, its head is a large sac with green dots while the one facing Daryn has six red eyes. It immediately curled up to a ball (4/800/**2000**).

"But before its Special Ability activates, I play Inferno Reckless Summon! Summoning more copies of Shield Worm to the field!"

Next to the worm in the middle were the same worms, and like its predecessor, both curled up to a ball(4/800/**2000**)2x. "You get to summon copies of one of your monsters too…"

"I pick my Blazewing Butterfly." Daryn announced as he took out his deck, opened it and picked another Butterfly, placing the fire insect on the field (4/**1500**/1500).

"And now for my Shield Worm's special ability! You have to send cards in your deck to your graveyard equal to the number of insect-type monsters I have! And with 3 of them out, one can send 3 cards to the graveyard!"

"That means…" Daryn began.

Jaden began to count with his fingers but gave up halfway through. "Either way, that's a lotta cards!" Jaden exclaimed and everyone looked at him.

"It's nine Jay." Syrus whispered.

The worms all rolled back to their initial forms and each opened their mouths, a hidden slot between the top four eyes and the bottom two eyes. Each fired a stream of green ooze from their mouths that went past the Butterfly and the Valkyria, hitting Daryn's duel disk and forcing out nine cards in total as the Slifer discarded them.

"Mr. Ryuga is really going through his deck!" Alexis pursed her lips at the Slifer's thinning deck. "And they still haven't lost any lifepoints…"

"This is nuts... Daryn really needs a game changer and going through 3 2000 defense points monsters isn't gonna be easy!" Matt added.

Ryuga didn't make another move. "I end my turn." He concluded as Daryn started his already.

"My draw!" Daryn announced and looked at the 17 cards in his deck. However, he seemed pleased at the card that he drew. "I Gemini summon Blazewing Butterfly!"

One of the Butterfly's wings blazed even brighter than before as the insect was Gemini summoned. "And now I play Double Summon from my hand!"

However…

"Hey, why didn't it show up?" Syrus asked.

Alexis however squinted at the result. "That's weird, I feel like I've seen this somewhere before."

"Well you're not the only one." Bastion said as he pointed to Mindy who, even from this distance, had a visibly puzzled look on her face. "Did you see her duel yesterday?"

Alexis shook her head. "Actually, this is the first time Mr. Ryuga publicly showed his duels."

"Curiouser and curiouser…" Carrie muttered.

Daryn scratched his head. _'It was fine yesterday… Wait a minute… Yesterday!'_

* * *

"_Pass it to me!" Daryn shouted as Syrus threw his duel disk to Jaden._

"_Alright… Here it comes!" The Elemental Hero duelist pulled back the duel disk._

"_No wait Jay we're supposed to use it as-!" Syrus interrupted but he was too late. Jaden launched the duel disk in a straight line._

"_Crap!" Daryn said quickly as he ran for the duel disk, which went into the forest._

"_Uh you were saying Sy?" Jaden asked._

"_We were supposed to throw the disks like a Frisbee!" Syrus scolded as the two followed after Daryn._

_In the forest, the Slifer boy was looking around for a sign of his duel disk. He searched low and found nothing and began to panic until he saw a glint at the corner of his eye._

_Up on the tree, stuck to the trunk by the sharp edge, was his duel disk._

"_There you are!" Daryn exclaimed, looking up at it. "Wow it's… pretty high up there isn't it…"_

"_Daryn!" He heard and turned around to find Jaden and Syrus. "So, did you find it?"_

"_Yeah…" Daryn trailed off and pointed up. "Gotta say Jaden, that was an impressive throw."_

"_Well thanks!" Jaden grinned but then looked back to the duel disk. "You know I have an idea…"_

_And that idea involved sitting on each other's shoulders, with Syrus on top._

"_Did I tell you guys… I'm afraid of heights?!" The small Slifer said._

"_Less… talking… more… grabbing…" Daryn grunted, at the base of it all._

"_Yeah Sy, you're not exactly a feather…" Jaden added under his breath just as Syrus gripped the duel disk._

"_Got it!" Syrus exclaimed as he tried to yank it out. "Uh… uh oh, it's… stuck… Wait I got it…"_

"_Care…ful…" Daryn warned slowly. Syrus tried slowly, prying it out with little to no force. But, after seeing it wasn't going to work, he began to pull it harder until suddenly._

_POP_

"_Whoa!"_

_Their tower fell, with Syrus clinging to a flimsy branch near the top of the tree and Jaden fell backwards while Daryn, who was facing away from the tree, fell to his face._

"_Look out below!"_

_Suddenly on Daryn's back was Syrus, who fell down on the Gemini duelist's back and jolted him, knocking the wind quite literally out of his chest._

_Then they heard a thud and in front of Daryn, next to Jaden's foot, was his duel disk, landing on the pointed part._

"_Aaah!" Jaden shouted after he realized, that could've been his foot, and clutched it close until he noticed it was the duel disk. "Well… at least we have it back."_

"_Yeah…" Daryn grunted as he lifted of the disk from the ground. "Huh?"_

_The tip was chipped!_

_Daryn shrieked._

* * *

The Slifer paled as his left eye twitched. _'No way…'_

Ryuga shook his head, disappointed. "Is this what the Academy students have to offer? Their inability to duel and their lack of maintenance?"

'_Wait… So it's not just me?'_ Daryn thought. "Regardless, I can still do something! I activate the effect of the Blazewing Butterfly that's Gemini summoned to special summon a Gemini monster in my graveyard! Like my Infinity Dark!"

The Butterfly with the brighter wings disappeared in a pillar of flames that lingered. After a while it vanished to reveal a man in full black armor and tattered robes surrounded by a dark aura that completely dimmed Daryn's field if it weren't for the second Blazewing Butterfly (4/**1500**/1200). "When a Gemini monster is summoned with Blazewing Butterfly's effect, its treated as an effect monster, which explains this cool light show."

Daryn then looked to the Dark Valkyria "And once per turn I can add a Spell counter to my Dark Valkyria!" The Valkyria's orbs grew brighter as she gained more power (4/2100-**2400**/1050) [2 SPELL COUNTERS]. "But that won't be staying long because now I remove it to destroy one of your Shield Worms!"

The Valkyria's orbs dimmed and from the four red orbs came a beam that convened in front of her hands. She collected it all into a ball of red energy, that she flung to one of the Shield Worms, shattering it to pixels (4/2400**-2100**/1050) [1 SPELL COUNTER].

"Now, Infinity Dark, attack one of the Shield Worms with _Infinite Power_!"

The dark armored man began to collect a small ball of dark energy and Ryuga shook his head. "Clearly you are blind, my Shield Worm has more defense points!"

"But it has less attack points! Now thanks to Infinity Dark's special ability, I can change the battle position of one of your monsters before he attacks!" Daryn said as Infinity Dark fired the ball to the curled up worm, shocking it and forcing it to stand (4/800/2000). Ryuga gasped as Infinity Dark rushed to his side of the field, his arms covered in a dark aura, and jabbed the worm, making it squirm.

**Daryn: 4000  
Mr. Ryuga: 3300**

"Alright finally!" Syrus cheered.

"Keep it up Daryn!" Kaye added.

Ryuga looked angry to say the least. "A minor setback…" He told himself.

"Now Dark Valkyria, attack his other Shield Worm!"

This time the Valkyria wasted no time and flied to Ryuga's side of the field, her wings flapped as she dove to the Shield Worm. As she went down, she tucked her wings and stiffened it as it impacted the Worm and sliced it, shattering it to pixels at the first hints of damage.

"Finally, Blazewing Butterfly, attack directly!" Daryn ordered as the insect flapped its wings, spewing out flames, all of which headed for the teacher trainee.

**Daryn: 4000  
Mr. Ryuga: 1800**

'_Just need to last till next turn… you can do this man…'_ Daryn encouraged himself. "I place three cards facedown and end my turn."

Ryuga gritted his teeth. _'I can't let this slacker beat me…'_ He thought and drew his card, looking at both his ring and the card he drew, he then smiled at the card. "I activate Polymerization to fuse the five Worm monsters in my hand!"

The five cards in Ryuga's hands appeared as a hologram in front of it, all five were monsters named Worm Xex, Worm Yagan, Worm Dimikles, Worm Rakuyeh and Worm Noble. All five creatures appeared in front of Ryuga and went into a fusion gate as the worms fused together in the gate. Soon, a monster came out.

"Oh my god…" Alexis gasped in disgust and Carrie cringed, along with most of the students that were watching.

"What… What the heck is that…" Matt asked and looked at Bastion. "Any ideas?"

Bastion looked at the large grey mass that slowly lowered behind Ryuga. That was it, the monster was a large, sphere made of grey slime that oozed from the monster. If one looked closer, they would see certain places of the sphere that hollowed slightly, making a simple face. Three pillar like appendages shot out from the sphere and attached itself to the ground, holding up the oozing sphere and causing more of the grey slime to jump off the sphere and made an ungodly splat like sound on the field (10/**?**/0). "That's Worm Zero!" Bastion exclaimed.

Ryuga chuckled. "Good, but do you know its special ability? It gains 500 attack points for each Fusion Material Monster that has a different name, making it 2500 in total!" The sphere opened up and let out a silent but audible groan like noise, causing many of the students to grew nauseous and repulsed at the monster (10/?-**2500**/0). "And there's more!"

"As if 2500 wasn't enough…" Daryn groaned.

"Depending on the number of fusion material monsters I used on it, it lets me use on of its effects! I banish one Reptile-Type monster in my graveyard to destroy one card on the field!"

As a card slid out of Ryuga's graveyard slot and the trainee pocketed it, the sphere opened its 'mouth' again, painfully slow. And from it, came a stream of grey liquid that targeted one of Daryn's facedowns. It was revealed to be Negate Attack, but now it is nothing but pixels.

"And now… Attack Infinity Dark with _Primordial Stream!_"

Not yet closing it mouth, the monster fired another stream that covered the Infinity Dark and Daryn could only stare as his monster was covered by an avalanche of grey ooze.

**Daryn: 3000  
Mr. Ryuga: 1800**

"That's… gross…" Syrus said slowly. "But… impressive. But why didn't he go after Dark Valkyria?"

"It's Infinity Dark's effect. Whenever it attacks a monster, it changes the mode of the monster. While Dark Valkyria gains attack points each turn, although even if she got up to 2400, it won't be enough." Carrie explained. "Although… Dark Valkyria can destroy a card by removing one of those counters."

"Either way, it would probably end this turn or the next one after that." Alexis predicted.

Seeing as his hand is now empty, Ryuga looked at Daryn. "I end my turn!"

Daryn breathed out the breath he didn't know he held in, and it came out more shaky than he thought. _'It all comes down to this…'_ He thought. _'Alright, let's go!'_ He thought determinedly. "Draw!"

He looked at the card and grew disappointed inside. It was an Equip Spell card. _'Damn it… I can't use this…' _But then a thought formed in his mind. _'Wait a minute, one of the cards I set! And I still have Valkyria's effect!'_

"I activate Dark Valkyria's special ability! And with it I can add a spell counter to her!" One more time, the orbs on the Valkyria grew brighter as she gained more power (4/2100-**2400**/1050) [2 SPELL COUNTERS]. "And now I remove one of it to destroy your Worm Zero!"

"I don't think so. I activate my facedown, Forbidden Chalice, this negates your Valkyria's special ability and give it 400 attack points!" Ryuga countered as a golden chalice appeared above Dark Valkyria and the Chalice dropped, letting the water rain on her. The orbs fizzled out, and the area around Valkyria lit back up as she looked around in shock (4/2400-**1800**-**2200**/1050).

"Damn it… I still have my Blazewing Butterfly though and now I Gemini Summon it!" The flames of the second Butterfly grew stronger as the insect was Gemini summoned like the previous Butterfly. "And now I tribute it to summon Evocator Chevalier from my graveyard!"

The Butterfly disappeared and in its place is a knight clad in red and orange armor. He carried a sword on one hand and the other was engulfed in flames, he wore a red helmet shaped like a flame and his face is orange, with green eyes and a green gem on the helmet (4/**1900**/900).

"And like the previous Blazewing Butterfly, the Gemini monster summoned by its effect is treated as a Gemini monster."

"I know of Evocator Chevalier's effect. You need an Equip Spell card! You can't activate any!" Ryuga reminded.

"Actually, I just need an Equip Card! And my facedown, Gemini Booster, is the perfect substitution!" Daryn's facedown flipped up and from it came a red machine, with two pillar like objects on its side and on the pillars are three blue rings. On top of the main body of the machine, are two antennas shaped like the symbol for Yen. "I can equip it to a Gemini monster and it gains 700 attack points!"

The antennas fired a lightning bolt to the Evocator Chevalier, giving it an attack boost and strengthened its flames (4/1900-**2600**/900).

"No way…" Ryuga's eyes bugged out in disbelief. He looked at the Gemini duelist, angry. "I made sure you couldn't use any-!" Ryuga stopped his sentence, catching himself.

"He did what?" Syrus asked, hearing Ryuga.

"He cheated!" Jaden exclaimed and leaned forward. "Hey! Are you cheating?!"

"W-What?!" Ryuga demanded from the Slifer. "I did no such thing! How dare you!"

"Hey now that you mention it…" Mindy began, far in the crowd. "The same thing happened yesterday!"

"_Hey she's right!" _An Obelisk shouted.

"_And he took my cards too!"_ This time an Obelisk girl shouted and caused a collective line of gasps among the crowds.

"_Hey give them back!"_

"_You can't take people's cards from them!"_

"Daryn take him down!" Carrie cheered, joining in the crowd and the others nodded, agreeing and soon the crowd was pumped at the promise of their cards returning and the idea of a cheater getting his fitting end.

Alexis eyed the excited crowd amusedly. _'I guess one thing they care more about than the color system is their cards…' _She thought, smiling warmly.

"Got it guys! Evocator Chevalier, attack Worm Zero!" Daryn commanded.

The Knight nodded as the knight grabbed the sword with both hands, the flames on his left arms transferred to the sword and the knight charged to the Sphere. It rammed its sword and the Worm opened up again, letting out a pained groan as it fell to the Knight's power. It shattered to pixels afterwards, raining on Ryuga.

**Daryn: 3000  
Mr. Ryuga: 1700**

"Dark Valkyria, attack him directly!" This time, the Valkyria moved and she soared slightly before diving in, tucking her wings close and tightened it. The Valkyria got to Ryuga's level and the wing impacted with the trainee, making him shout in shock.

**Daryn: 3000  
Mr. Ryuga: 0**

The crowd cheered as Daryn won and the now former trainee fell. After he impacted with the ground, cards came from his coat, scattering in the air. Ryuga looked around in embarrassment as the students snapped out of their shock and started jeering. Hearing this, Daryn immediately silently went off the duel field as Crowler stepped on, an annoyed look on his face.

"Students please calm down!" Crowler said to a microphone. "We will deal with Mr. Ryuga later, but right now, we'll sort the cards and you can pick it up later at lunch! But right now, go to your classes!"

Disgruntled and disappointed, the students, particularly the Obelisks, stood up and left the arena but their minds a bit more at ease as they'll get their cards soon enough. Daryn on the other hand had returned to the crowds where his friends are at.

"They may not realize it but technically the Obelisks who lost their cards owe you." Alexis commented.

"Either way, it was a sweet duel! That trap Equip Card was somethin' else!" Jaden complimented.

Daryn grinned but before he could say anything else…

His stomach grumbled.

"Chill we can swing by the canteen…" Jaden waved off.

"Uh no, we can't, we need to get to the gym!" Syrus reminded.

"But Sy!" The two other Slifers protested but Syrus ran off, Jaden and Daryn following them.

"Wow good thing I ate." Carrie mentioned and Kaye looked at her oddly.

"Really? I didn't see you take out your food." Kaye asked skeptically.

"I didn't." The Ra said plainly as her friend squinted and checked her own lunchbox, only to realize half of it is missing.

"You-!" Kaye called but Carrie already ran. "Get back here!"

The two Ra girls ran off, passing by Geoffrey momentarily and the Obelisk didn't bother looking, instead he immediately looked to Alexis. "We're late." He said and Alexis nodded.

"Well, see you guys around!" Alexis said, waving away to Matt and Bastion, both of them going to their classes.

* * *

"I only took a bit!" Carrie whined.

"Half of an entire lunchbox isn't a bit!" Kaye countered.

Carrie placed her palms together apologetically. "I'm sorryyyy I'll cook you something and pay you back double I promisseeee…"

"Somehow I don't trust you. If you want to apologize, draw me the Golden Eggwich."

"You're insane! Half of your stuff doesn't compare to even a quarter of the Golden Eggwich!"

The two girls bantered as they headed for their next class. The chase, started by Carrie, ended when she dropped her PDA and had to go back and get it, in the process, her grip on the rest of her items loosened and she had to pick all of it up, mostly her stationary, because her pencil case was open the entire time. Their banter stopped however, when they saw…

"Shh wait." Carrie ordered. "Is that Crowler…?"

"Weird, that's not his class, that's the Gym where the Slifers are at." Kaye added.

The two looked at each other knowingly, before silently tailing the effeminate man. They noticed that in his hand was a small envelope with a lipstick stain on it and he was taking it to the boy's locker room.

"What the heck…?" Carrie whispered.

"This is so wrong…" Kaye added, just as silent.

The two waited for the teacher to exit and when he did exit, he had an extremely pleased but extremely (in a silly fashion) sinister smile on him and the two Ras looked at each other uneasily. Fortunately he didn't use the same way he exited, leaving Carrie and Kaye some breathing room to leave before he noticed.

"That… didn't look good." Carrie said after they got away.

"It could be some… misunderstanding?" Kaye replied unsurely.

"I hope it is!"

* * *

At the Gymnasium, the first year Slifers are all lined up, waiting for their gym instructor. All but one, small, Slifer that is.

"I wonder where Sy is…" Jaden thought aloud.

"Wasn't he following you?" Daryn asked back.

"What? We didn't even split up!" The Hero duelist replied confidently.

"Jaden we did split up. You went for the canteen, and I-" The two immediately stopped as their gym instructor arrived.

Their instructor is a woman with long black hair. Her bangs parted in the middle and had two longer bits and she had light, almost pale brown eyes. Everyone's attention turned to the raven haired woman but Jaden looked surprised to see the woman.

"Alright everyone, I'm Midori Hibiki, and I'm your gym instructor for the semester." She introduced, making sure her voice is heard to the students. "Let's start, I want you guys to split in two groups and warm up for 5 minutes!" She blew a whistle and the kids immediately shifted to high gear.

"Wow she goes straight to business huh Jay?" Daryn commented as the two paired up, but Jaden didn't reply. "Uh Jaden?"

"Huh?" The Slifer snapped out of his daze. "Oh… right!" He said slowly as the two walked towards a group.

Syrus was still in the changing room, technically, he just arrived in the changing room. "Lousy girl's gym!" He complained. "They should make the signs bigger!"

The Slifer skidded to a stop in front of his locker and opened it before kneeling down and seeing another pair of shoes in it. "These are Jaden's shoes… I guess he's still using my locker." He pulled out the shoes and notice an envelope that slipped out. "Huh?"

The envelope was the same as the one Carrie and Kaye saw in Crowler's hand. But he didn't know that. "But this isn't Jaden's!" After a quick glance around, the blue haired boy went to a corner, reading the letter.

"_From the moment I first saw you… I've been…"_ Syrus read the rest of the letter with disbelief. _"In love with you?! Meet me tonight behind the girl's dorm, endearingly… Alexis Rhodes?!"_

Of course he missed who the letter was meant for.

Or the fact the Obelisk Girl's name was spelled with a 'k' and without the 'h'…

Despite that, Syrus still staggered back. "This sure is better than what my mom writes to me…" He said as he began to wonder how it would be like, an exaggerated prediction of being with the Obelisk Queen…

* * *

It was night and everyone's in where they needed to be, with most teachers in their offices and students either in their room or their dorm's lounges, all of which had the odd ones out doing their own activities, one of them was Jaden, who came in to his room, hair wet and a holding a towel.

"Hey Sy the outhouse's yours if you want i-"

"Sy's gonzo." Chumley replied, making Jaden look up to the top bunk. "Yeah he just left, and he was in a real good mood too."

"A good mood?" The Brunette sat down on the stairs of the bunk bed. "That really doesn't sound like Syrus…"

* * *

Carrie gritted her teeth. "You guys know the answer to this?" She grumbled.

"Let me take a look." Bastion said, walking over and looking at Carrie oddly. "I don't see the problem here…"

"Yeah… It's just when and where Slifer showed up and who summoned him…" Kaye agreed.

"I don't know much about Battle City…" Carrie pouted.

"You're kidding me right?" Matt asked. "What duelist doesn't know about Battle City…"

"I said I don't know much about it! Not anything… I just didn't grow an interest for dueling until the recent years…" Carrie explained.

"Just skip over the question then…" Kaye waved off.

"But that was the last one…" Shaking her head, Carrie put away her dueling history homework. "I'll just do math…"

"That's the first time I have ever heard anyone prefer math over anything." Matt laughed lightly.

Suddenly, Carrie's PDA rang. "Don't answer that." Kaye chided.

"But…" Carrie checked the sender. "It's Jaden."

"If he needs help on dueling history he's asking the wrong person." Bastion pointed out.

"Nah I don't think he'd need help with that…" Matt said.

Despite Kaye's warning, Carrie opened the text, a single line. _"hey have you seen syrus?" _It says and Carrie raised her eyebrow, typing her reply.

"_No, he's not in the dorm?"_

The reply took a while, she managed to finish a question as Jaden replied. _"just went around the dorm, hes nowhere here"_

"Is something wrong with Jaden?" Kaye asked.

"No not Jaden, Syrus, Sy's missing." Carrie replied. "You guys saw him?"

"Actually…" Everyone turned to Matt now. "Now that you mention it, I remember seeing."

"Where and when?" Bastion asked. "And did you see where he was going?"

"Uh… walking past Ra and about 30 minutes ago…" Matt said, sounding a little unsure. "And no I couldn't tell where he was going..."

Kaye checked her PDA's watch. "Its 11:40-ish now… Why is he out and about so late?"

Carrie was busy typing, still chatting with Jaden. "He said he got a weird message telling him to go to the Obelisk girl's dorm…"

"Oh, I remember now, he was heading towards the Obelisk turf." Matt said, snapping his fingers.

"_Don't tell me you're heading there…"_ Carrie typed.

"_I have to sy's in trouble!"_ Jaden's reply was fast.

"There are regulations against going to the Girl's dorm." Kaye warned.

"I doubt Jaden would be the kind to care." Bastion commented. "He's probably halfway there by now."

"What makes you so sure?" Matt asked and Bastion pointed towards a window. The three other Ras scuttled towards it, Bastion in the back. They all waited patiently and sure enough, after only about 30 seconds, Jaden passed through, duel disk, deck and all. "Wow good intuition Bast!"

"Please don't call me that…" Bastion said, sending a stern glare to Matt.

"Well… Stopping him would probably put Syrus in danger…" Kaye mused. "I think he can handle it…"

"Reality check, we're in Duel Academy, where everything is settled with a duel. An Obelisk against a Slifer?" Matt asked unsurely. "But it is Jaden though… I heard he beat Doctor Crowler."

"He'll be fine, he almost beat an Obelisk, too bad we had to cut that duel short." Carrie said as she typed her last message to Jaden.

"_Good luck Jay, try not to get caught, red is a flashy color."_

"What are you four doing?"

The four Ra yellow students turned around to face a slowly familiar face. The Ra Yellow headmistress, Helen Tyrell, was looking at the students, eyeing them with a slightly hidden smile and an eyebrow raised. She has mid-back length blonde hair, curled at the front to form two hoop like shapes at the side of her face and chocolate brown eyes. She wore a Ra Yellow jacket, with an elongated skirt and a pair of violet flower earrings. "It's late, is something going on out there?"

"Nope, nothing at all Mrs. Tyrell!" Matt said.

She looked at the Ra yellow students. "I know it's a Saturday night but don't exert yourselves alright? Get plenty of rest..." She chided.

"We will Mr.s Tyrell..." Carrie actually yawned, something she started to fake but eventually grew to an actual yawn. "W-Well I'm going to sleep." Carrie said, walking over to their table and picking up her belongings.

"Me too..." Kaye added, also picking up her belongings and walking out.

Matt and Bastion went without a word, under the stern but kind glare of the concerned Mrs. Tyrell, who blinked in confusion at the chain of events. She shrugged it off. "As long as they're well rested..." She said to herself.

* * *

_A few minutes prior…_

"_A love letter from Alexis? You're kidding right?"_

_In front of Syrus was Alexis, Mindy and Jasmine, while behind the trio was Danny, sitting on one of the chairs. While Mindy and Jasmine donned night gowns, Alexis and Danny still wore their uniforms, the latter two having only their uniform to wear at the moment._

"_Yup ask her!" Syrus winked, laughing nervously._

"_Syrus honestly…" Danny sighed._

"_Like, hello, Alexis is really tall and you're really short." Jasmine spoke this time, beginning her string of comparisons. "She's great at dueling and you're not so great. She's really-"_

"_But it's true just tell her Alexis I even have the letter!" Syrus fidgeted, getting the letter and Mindy grabbed it._

_The three girls looked at it with disbelief. "Syrus, my name isn't even spelled right here."_

"_Yeah whoever wrote this used a k…" Mindy squinted, suspicious. "Hey, this is sent out to Jaden Yuki!"_

"_What! Jaden?" He asked in disbelief as Mindy showed him the letter again._

"_I hate to tell you this Syrus but someone's pulling your leg." Danny said, walking over._

"_Aw, I can't even get a fake love letter?" Syrus looked upset, his esteem dropped even lower._

"_I'm sorry Syrus…" Alexis apologized as Syrus dropped even lower._

"_Me too…"_

"_Well there's that, let's just let Syrus go and be on our merry way to sleep." Danny yawned, glancing at Alexis._

_But Jasmine and Mindy looked unconvinced. "I don't buy it..." Jasmine said with a frown. "He could've just faked the letter to try and get in here!"_

"_So what? Should we report him for trespassing then?" Mindy asked._

"_But I was invited I swear!" Syrus exclaimed._

"_Girls what is going on down there?"_

_Everyone looked up to see a woman with short brown hair and a large, curled brown back and brown eyes, wearing long earrings and wearing a light pink robe. She's Fonda Fontaine, the school nurse and Obelisk headmistress._

_Alexis, Mindy and Jasmine all looked at each other and the three sat on the short Syrus and the three looked at Danny._

"_Nothing's… wrong!" Danny lied. 'Right nothing's wrong with holding a Slifer hostage.' Out loud she began to form another lie. "We just got excited about Pro Season starting soon!"_

_Mrs. Fontaine shook her head, but smiled at the supposedly excited girls. "Well that's nice but keep your voices down, I'm trying to sleep girls, it's late!"_

"_We promise Mrs. Fontaine!" Alexis replied, a diligent smile on her face as Mrs. Fontaine nodded and went back to the hall she came from. "That was a close one…" Alexis sighed out._

"_So what now?" Mindy asked._

"_We let Syrus go and we go back to sleep." Danny tried to convince the girls but Alexis' look changed to a smirk._

"_I really like that plan." Syrus agreed._

"_Quite you!" Jasmine barked._

"_I'll tell you what… We'll use Sy here as a bait, to find out what we were wondering about…" Alexis then looked at Danny. "We'll need your help though…"_

"_Eh? What for?" The senior asked._

"_We need you to get access to one of the boats." Alexis said, looking to Danny in the eye as she averted her gaze again._

"_N-No way, that's off limits Lex." She said, not really looking. "What are you so interested about anyway?"_

"_None of your business…"_

"_It kind of is, if you're asking me to do this." Danny then turned her head to Alexis, still refusing to look at her in the eye, she glanced however, not really focusing on Alexis' face. "If you tell me I might consider it though…"_

* * *

"I hope you know what you're doing Jaden…" Syrus said as he held the oars to keep the boat steady. On Jaden's left arm is a duel disk, his deck already inserted.

Alexis was across their boat, with Mindy and Jasmine at the boat that Danny took for them, while the senior wanted no part of it, returning to her room.

As a spectator of the duel was Crowler, the Obelisk Blue teacher wore a black wetsuit. The doctor was responsible for all this, having made the fake love letter to Jaden, just to expel him. "A Slifer versus an Obelisk…" He mused before a thin, sinister smile appeared on him. "Put him in his place Alexis." He cheered on silently.

Back to the two, their duel disks were activated and both drew five cards. Alexis looked at Jaden with the ferocity of a warrior. "Ready?" She asked.

"You know it!" Jaden replied with as much fire.

"Duel!"

**Jaden: 4000  
Alexis: 4000**

"Get your game on Alexis!" Jaden said as Alexis placed hovered her hand over her deck.

"Here we go…" Syrus muttered.

"Alright, let's see!" Alexis said as she drew her card and tossed it with the rest of her hand and picked a monster. "Etoile Cyber, rise!"

In front of the boat was a blue skinned woman wearing a red and blue skin tight suit. She had ribbons coiling over her arms and a flair of white on her hips. She wore a golden chocker and had a piece of red cloth over her right eye. Her hair was a shade of orange that, despite the curls, reached to a small part of her thighs. She twirled in place before standing in front of Alexis' gracefully (4/**1200**/1600).

"I'm also playing one card facedown." Alexis said, concluding her turn.

"Time to throwdown…" Jaden said before drawing. "First of all, I summon the Elemental Hero Sparkman!"

The blue and gold hero from Chazz's duel with Jaden appeared, electricity coursed from his arms as he hovered over the water with a confident stance (4/**1600**/1400). "And now, I'll have him attack your Etoile Cyber with _Static Shockwave_!" Jaden announced as the hero produced electricity from the orange orb on the palm of his right hand.

It fired off four lightning bolts, all of which combined to form a single, powerful bolt that snaked towards Etoile Cyber. Alexis gritted her teeth as she raised an arm up. "Hold it right there!" She said as her facedown flipped up.

The lightning seems to go around Etoile Cyber, who looked forward, her expression unchanging. "I activate the trap card, Doble Passe!" After going around Etoile Cyber, it hit Alexis, who endured the sudden direct hit.

**Jaden: 4000  
Alexis: 2400**

"Doble Passe changes the attack of your monster to a direct attack. And in return, one of my monsters can attack directly!" Etoile Cyber then began to move to Jaden's field, gliding across the water.

"Oh and when Etoile Cyber attacks directly, she gains 600 attack points!" Alexis added as the ballerina appeared in front of Jaden and kicked him with a spinning kick to the arm.

**Jaden: 2200  
Alexis: 2400**

"Jaden!" Syrus exclaimed worriedly but quickly grabbed the oar to balance them out.

"I'm fine… That Alexis' somethin' else though… Sacrificing her own lifepoints to just to get to mine…" Jaden's eyebrows lowered as a bead of sweat rolled down.

"So you're impressed?" Alexis asked.

"Impressed, I think I'm in love." Jaden joked.

"Cute, too bad I'll have to crush you." Alexis replied with snark, yet gave it in a playful tone. "Now then where were we?" Alexis said as she drew her card, smiling at it.

"I play Blade Skater in attack mode!"

The next woman has a light purple skin tone and sharp blue eyes, along with a gold hoop earring. She wore a darker purple skin tight suit and had a half skirt like Etoile Cyber. On her arms are skate blades and she also has skates on her feet. After skating the water, circling Alexis' boat, she rested next to Etoile Cyber, kicking up the water (4/**1400**/1500).

"And I activate Polymerization to fuse Etoile Cyber and Blade Skater together to summon Cyber Blader!" Alexis announced as the two ladies in front of her began to co-ordinate a movement, skating across the water in harmony and splitting up in two, before meeting again in the middle, only to part again. The two then met a little bit in front of where they were and formed a tornado.

The tornado shot up and slowly dissipated, revealing a light blue skinned woman with a purple suit with some red flame like patterns on it. On both her shoulders were red spikes. Similar to the two monsters that fused to become her, she has the half skirt like cloth on her hips. Her dark blue hair billowed at the tornado. Finally, on her face is a red visor that masks her eyes, giving her a serene look (7/**2100**/800). She landed in front of Alexis with force, but did not stir the water.

"Now Cyber Blader, attack Sparkman with _Whirlwind Rage_!" Alexis commanded as the Cyber Blader began to perform a pirouette, one so fast that wind visibly spun around her. As she approached Jaden's Sparkman, she extended her right leg, hitting Sparkman with one of her blades and shattered him to pixels. Excess wind went towards Jaden, taking down his lifepoints.

**Jaden: 1700  
Alexis: 2400**

"Way to go Alexis!" Mindy cheered.

"Yeah you got him in the ropes now!" Jasmine cheered as well. "I knew him beating Dr. Crowler was just dumb luck!"

Other than Mindy and Jasmine cheering her on was Crowler, albeit a little more quietly to keep his presence hidden. He was grinning, while also keeping himself floating.

"Well it'll be my pleasure to prove you wrong!" Jaden said before looking at his deck, drawing a card. "Alright, perfect."

The field spell slot on Jaden's duel disk opened. "I activate the Field Spell card Fusion Gate!" He announced as he inserted the card. After the slot closed, a light green grid began to cover the water under them, following its shapes and contours. "With Fusion Gate, I don't need to use Polymerization to fusion summon. And I'll fusion summon this!"

Jaden showed two cards in his hand, revealing it to be Elemental Hero Avian and Burstinatrix. The two monsters briefly appeared in front of him before a portal opened up in the ground and took Avian and Burstinatrix in. The Elemental Hero Flame Wingman appeared from the portal in the ground, hovering over the grid laced water (6/**2100**/1200).

"So it's one fusion monster against another! That's fine by me." Alexis noted, before she closed her eyes and smiled confidently. "Although, since they have the same attack points, they're just going to destroy each other."

"Not after I play this!" Jaden showed his next card. "Kishino Spirit! Now Flame Wingman won't be destroyed in battle by any monster with attack points equal to his own!" While the water did not stand still, it did slow down its rocking as a light blue ripple formed from the midpoint of the two duelists. "And thanks to Wingman's special ability, once he destroys your Cyber Blader, you take damage equal to her attack points!"

Alexis squinted, but other than that, showed to signs of worry. "Now go Flame Wingman, attack Cyber Blader!"

Using its wing, the hero pushed itself across the water, heading for the Cyber Blader. He charged the dragon arms with a fire ball and opened the dragon's maw, putting Cyber Blader in its grip. _'Someone hasn't done their homework…'_ Alexis thought, smiling, as Flame Wingman tried to destroy Cyber Blader, an invisible protective circle around her. The other fusion monster grabbed Wingman's dragon hand and simply pushed it away.

"What? How did she survive Wingman's attack?" Jaden asked as Flame Wingman returned to his side.

"Simple, Cyber Blader's special ability changes with the number of monsters on your side of the field. With only one out, she can't be destroyed by battle!" Alexis explained.

"Then that means…"

"Neither of us are losing lifepoints!"

After a slightly hesitant, but impressed, pause, Jaden ended his turn. "Well I guess you got me."

"Oh when I get you Jaden, believe me, you'll know it." Alexis said as she drew a card. "Like right now for example." She flipped over the card she drew, smirking.

"I equip my Cyber Blader with Lightning Blade!" Alexis announced as a sword appeared in Cyber Blader's right hand. The hilt is gold and red with a blue jewel on the center of the hilt's golden piece, while the handle is a brown color. The blade was large and stout, but still sharp and dangerous. It cackled with electricity in Cyber Blader's hands (7/2100-**2900**/800). "Since Cyber Blader's a Warrior-Type monster, I can equip this to her, and she gains 800 attack points and all Water monsters lose 500 attack points!"

"Uh oh, I think you might wanna brace yourself for this Sy." Jaden said as he crouched down lower, to make sure he stays on the boat while Syrus gripped the oars tighter.

Regardless of Jaden's comment, Alexis looked at the Cyber Blader. "Go Cyber Blader, attack the Wingman with _Shock Slash!_"

The Blader skated towards Jaden's side of the field, charging up her new sword with electricity as she moved. She spun as she approached the Flame Wingman, holding out her sword and slashed and shocked Flame Wingman gracefully, shattering the hero to pixels.

**Jaden: 900  
Alexis: 2400**

"Your lifepoints are looking pretty low." Alexis taunted. "Hope you haven't unpacked yet."

"Yeah 'cuz when Alexis wins you're both getting expelled!" Mindy reminded as Jasmine gave a peace sign.

"W-We are?!" Syrus asked, afraid.

"Don't worry, that's not gonna happen…" Jaden assured. "I promise." He added, calming Syrus' mind, even if only by a bit.

'_You shouldn't make promises you can't keep.'_ Alexis thought to herself.

'_I hope I'm not making a promise I can't keep.'_ Jaden then looked to the grid on the water. _'The only card I have out is Fusion Gate… But there's still a chance I can win.'_

Jaden then looked at his deck, placing as much trust and hope as he can. _'It all matters on what I draw right here, right now.'_ He drew his card. "Here goes something!"

After looking at the card, Jaden smiled. "Perfect!" He exclaimed and Alexis looked at him expectantly. "I play Elemental Hero Clayman!"

The earth Elemental hero appeared this time, but he didn't kneel, he stayed standing, in attack mode (4/**800**/2000). "And now I activate Monster Reborn, to bring back Elemental Hero Sparkman!"

As the stylized ankh appeared, Jaden picked up the card, special summoning the electric themed hero next to Clayman (4/**1600**/1400).

"What difference will he make? My Cyber Blader is stronger than both of those heroes com-" Alexis then realized that Fusion Gate is still on the field. "bined…" She finished, realizing Jaden's next move.

"You guessed it! With Fusion Gate, I can fuse Sparkman and Clayman to summon…" The fusion gate appeared under the two heroes, one for each of them, and they both jumped down to the gates. The gates then combined as a new hero began to rise up. "Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!"

The portal stirred up the water as the Hero rose up, shaking Jaden's boat, Alexis' boat and Crowler. Rising up was a hero with a large torso and large arms, most of with was gold with white accents, a large blue orb in the middle, which contained electricity inside. His pants are purple but from the knee down was the same golden material. His head was small and was covered by a blue visor (6/**2400**/1500). Lightning cracked through the night sky as the hero stood up straight.

"Hate to break it to you but Cyber Blader has more attack points!" Alexis stated, a little relieved.

"Yeah I know, I know." Jaden mumbled. "But you see, Thunder Giant lets me destroy a monster on the field who's original attack points are lower than his!"

"But Cyber Blader only had 2100 attack points!" Alexis gasped.

"Bingo, and that's lower than Thunder Giant, meaning I can destroy your Cyber Blader!" Thunder Giant was already on the move, gliding through the water and loomed menacingly over Cyber Blader. He raised one of his hands and from the blue orb in his palm, generated enough electricity to shock the Cyber Blader, shattering her. "But the best part is his attack! Attack directly with _Voltic Thunder!_"

Still in front of her, Thunder Giant fired off another blast and this time, they headed for Alexis who braced herself, enduring the attack and shielding herself with her duel disk.

**Jaden: 900  
Alexis: 0**

"Alexis!" Jasmine said worriedly.

"What just happened?" Mindy asked, confused at dazed.

"Yeah Jaden won!" Syrus cheered.

Jaden smiled at the results and gave Alexis his now signature two finger salute. "Alright looks like that is game!"

* * *

"Alright a deal's a deal."

Jaden and Alexis' boat now floated, parallel to each other. "I won, meaning Syrus and I get off free!"

"Ok guys I won't back out." Alexis placed a hand on her hip. "We'll keep quiet about what happened tonight."

"Well if you ask me I think we should turn both of them in!" Jasmine said with hostility in her voice.

"Yeah well no one asked you." Alexis snapped cooly.

"Alexis!" Jasmine gasped.

The Obelisk scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Hah, that sounded harsher than I thought, sorry Jaz." Alexis apologized as the other Obelisk seemingly calmed down. "But Jaden beat me in a duel fair and square, and that's all there is to it."

"Nah there was way more to it than that, it was close." The three girls turned to Jaden, who has his arms crossed over his chest. "Yeah, you got game."

Alexis seemed taken aback by what he said as the two Slifers sat down, with Jaden grabbing the oars this time. "Later!" He said as he began to row away, with Syrus waving.

'_Even if I did win, I could never turn those two in.'_ Alexis thought. _'This place is way more interesting with those two around.'_

* * *

**Surprised? No? I feel pretty bad for Mrs. Fontaine because Obelisk headmistress? Nurse? Gym teacher? That's a lot to handle! So enter, Midori Hibiki! By the way, most of the duels would use 40 cards. And I gave Ryuga a Worm deck because he's TAKING the cards ha ha get it symbolism haha. Ha. Haha. Haa… And I think Jaden would type without using proper capitalization of punctuations unless necessary (also Fusion Weapon only works on level 6 or below fusion monsters, so I had to change sorry!)**

**Also I think it's weird how we just go straight to exams on episode 4 I think I'll give you guys an extra chapter before that but I do need something going on, so leave suggestions or something!**

**Thanks to**

**AussieKing-Helen Tyrell**

**IfTimeWasStill-Geoffrey Alder**

**Robs The Universal Warrior-Matt Roberts**

**ShadowKuriboh900-Daryn Jader**

**WrittenWhim-Kaye Aoki**

**Anyway, Card Feature Section!**

**Double Loss  
(Trap card)**

Activate when your opponent is about to send any number of cards to the graveyard from their deck, double the number they would send.

**See ya!**


	4. Easy

**I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK TWO YEARS BUT SCHOOL SLITHERED UP ON ME AND BIT ME TILL I'M COMATOSE.**

**Just some author note to explain some stuff skip if ur not interested lmao but see end of the story for more notes!**

**First off, I know I said I'll try to get something else other than immediately exams but you have no idea how fast tests actually sneak up on you. So in celebration of soon getting screwed beyond belief over exams, chapter 4 and 5 is born!**

**Hope you enjoy! As a usual disclaimer, I do not own the characters or the Yu-Gi-Oh! Franchise, if I did the dub would probably end up better or non-existent.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Easy**

In the wee hours of morning that touched upon Duel Academy, one would find its students sleeping.

Not today. Today it is a myriad of students getting up early to study, or up all night from studying, or some in blissful ignorance and the select few who are terrified of their own ignorance. That's right, it's the first midterm for many, and for others, a promotional exam.

An example of the first would be in the Slifer dorm, Syrus woke up far too early for him just to study, but gave up and decided his fate should be decided by the divine will of Slifer the sky dragon for its forces has a better chance of helping Syrus than his own exhausted mind. He had set up a little shrine with candles and 3 Monster Reborn cards held by a headband and a large poster of Slifer on the wall.

"Please, please, PLEASE Slifer, at least let me pass to the next dorm, I don't want to stay red forever. I-I mean, red looks good on you! But I don't think it's right for me and…" Trailed off into a mix of pleas and apologies, Syrus didn't notice the alarm clock that was placed right next to Jaden's head had rung a loud and shrill metallic buzz, shocking Syrus who got out of the pleas shocked, shouting "Slifer!" before looking behind to Jaden, still asleep in blissful ignorance. "And there he goes again." The smaller Slifer sighed and began to shake Jaden awake.

"Jaden? Jay wake up." Syrus shook the boy's forearm, and managed to get a reaction, a light flinch, Syrus shook Jaden harder. "Jaden wake up, you'll miss breakfast!"

"WRONG! BECAUSE I PLAY A TRAP!" Jaden shouted, yet still in blissful slumber, yet not the same can be said about his arms, which stretched out, the right arm knocking Syrus over.

Irritated, Syrus gritted his teeth. "Why can't he ever sleep in defense mode!"

"Chillax Sy," Came Chumley's voice from the top bunk. "In case you forgot, the second half of the exams is the duels where they pit kids from each other's dorms against each other. You get what I'm saying?"

"Chumley I never get anything you're saying." Syrus retorted, resulting in Chumley giving Syrus one overbearing eye roll.

"If we let the competition sleep in, we have better chances at getting promoted! And I don't want even a chance of dueling the guy who beat Dr. Crowler!" Chumley explained and Syrus got up.

"Oh I get it now, and I'm starting to get why you've been held back for two years!" Syrus then shook Jaden awake once more to no avail. "Jaden wake up, I'll just save you a seat there, were in the same test room anyway!"

Syrus rushed out the door, still buttoning his jacket and Chumley only looked, uninterested and probably not comprehending the first year's eagerness. "Fine, time for plan B…"

* * *

Roughly an hour ago…

"Carrie? What are you doing here?"

The Ra in question was only slightly awake, a blanket draped over her shoulder and her usually ponytailed hair was down and used as her own pillow.

The girl eyed the person who was watching her, Kaye, who looked bright and clean and ready to tackle papers and duels.

Carrie tried to recall what happened, something about dueling theories and theorists and famous duels and duels, duels, duels, before she found herself in... The mess hall? She hissed out something that Kaye tutted her for before lifting her head up with a groan. She turned left, before realizing that her neck felt sore and stiff when she turned to the right and stretched her back.

"C'mon let's go." Kaye called.

"Huh?"

"The tests start in 15 minutes."

"Huh?!" Carrie immediately woke up, her eyes wide awake now, and she ran for the exit, while brushing her hair.

Silent, Kaye sat down. 'I was gonna say just kidding but she moved too fast…' Kaye blinked at the girl's disappearing form.

"You ready already?" Kaye turned to her left, seeing Matt.

"I am actually, just waiting for breakfast." Kaye explained as Matt sat down.

"Yeah, me too, kinda jittery, though." He looked over to Kaye's right. "Those your notes?"

"No, Carrie's. My notes are a little more monochromatic."

"Oh, oh can I see?" Regardless, Matt took the papers anyway, and read it. "I like to read other's notes to see if I missed anything."

"That uh, makes sense I guess? Careful with that, she doesn't seem like the type who likes having her stuff rummaged without permission." Kaye warned Matt but he looked at her. "Well, no one likes having some random guy grabbing their stuff."

"I'm not random! I'm an acquaintance!" Matt defended, as he continued to read the notes.

"I can't tell if you're genuine or not."

"If you two are really my 'acquaintances' then we'd go to the test hall now!" Carrie returned, duel disk on arm, hair in odd strands and eyes red.

"Huh? Now? Why, its only 6:30." Matt said casually. "Breakfast isn't even ready yet."

"But… but Kaye… she…"Carrie too sat down on the bench, her head in her hands. She's been duped, for all those times mooching off the other girl's lunch.

* * *

The exams started for everyone, with the papers reaping in lots nervous new students, and some older students. Duel academy, mostly about dueling, has only two papers, one on dueling theory, which involves some math and academics, the other being dueling history, which supposedly gets harder and more detailed as one goes up in dormitories and years. But for promotional exams, the student's promotion is assessed through the duels. And all papers must be done in 2 hours.

Half an hour has gone by, yet Jaden isn't even there. He's still running towards the main building. "Man, Chumley knows how to treat a guy! A five course breakfast!" He said to himself as he sprinted leaving a trail of dust behind him. Along the way, he ran past a woman, struggling to push her van up the hill. "Excuse me coming through!" Jaden shouted as he left her in said trail of dust.

He skidded though, looking at the struggling woman, "To be a gentleman or to be on time…" He mumbled but shrugged quickly. "Well seeing how I'm never on time." He went back to push the van from the back

"Oh thank you, you must be from the auto club!" The woman greeted gratefully.

"Don't let the red jacket fool you, I'm just your average good deed dude." In his introduction, he ended up letting go of the van, which caused it to skid down.

"I-Isn't that nice!" The woman replied, stuttering with her difficulty to hold the van's weight and Jaden noticed his mistake, running back to push the van up.

"It'd be nice if I pushed! So where are we headed?" Jaden asked.

"Oh just up this hill and I'll be fine from there!" The woman said. "You're such a sweet boy, I'll remember this!"

* * *

A constant fact amongst all students was that the paper examination would end in 45 minutes, and in the 1 hour 15 it ensued, a number of students had already collected their papers to the examiner, such as Alexander Faust, one of the first to submit was a small Slifer boy in Carrie and Matt's exam room with an almost bowl cut shaped white hair that framed his face, and soft red eyes and fairly pale skin. He walked back up timidly as other students, notably those of the Obelisks, gave him mocking looks.

All of this was in Miss Tyrell's rather tame exam room. However, in Professor Banner's room…

"…It counters… a spell… which counters… a field spe…ll…." Syrus droned in his sleep.

"I didn't know this was an oral exam Syrus."

"Hyah?" Syrus sputtered, shocked at the sudden awakening courtesy of Jaden's loud arrival.

"Although maybe next time sleeping is better than an all-night Slifer séance." Jaden grinned.

"You're here!" Syrus whispered.

"You two wanna keep it down?" Chazz's irritated voice came from above. "Some of us plan to pass this test!"

"Hey I always plan on passing, it just doesn't always happen!" Jaden argued, only furthering Chazz's irritation.

"Can you both keep it down…" Kaye whispered, yet it sounded like hisses which echoed in the nearly silent room and she immediately clamped her mouth.

"Children, please be quiet." Banner reminded, shocking Jaden. "Jaden, why don't you come down here and get your papers?"

"Oh uh, be there in a sec!" Jaden called out, breaking the concentration of countless of students (such as Beauregard, who was so into his focus, the moment Jaden shouted an "Oh!" it was broken so badly he scratched half his paper in pencil).

'He better be, we're over an hour into this, he's lucky to finish one paper!' Alexis thought.

Bastion too had his own thoughts regarding the late Slifer. 'Look at him, childish, puerile, if only he committed himself to his studies, he could be a great duelist.'

'I hope you know what you're doing Jaden…' Alexis thought.

'What… what the hell is this…' Kaye thought, as she looked at her paper, a question regarding some duel puzzle that would need a message from the divine to even have a chance of being answered. 'Jaden's toast…'

In the end, he and Syrus ended up sleeping, snoring even, on their chairs, to the irritation of the Ras and Obelisks around them, much to Crowler's joy, as he laughed, as silently as he could.

"You might be able to dream your way through the written exam, but when your field test starts, believe me it'll be a nightmare!" He stated, continuing to giggle.

"Uhh, excuse me Mr. Crowler."

The Doctor didn't even have time to scold whoever it was for calling him "Mr. Crowler" as the two of them handed their papers over.

"Most of the third years are done, can we go to the card shop?" A third year Ra asked.

"What? No get back to class!" Crowler instructed.

"But sir, we heard about the rare cards and we're done! Surely we can be dismissed early." The third year Obelisk coaxed.

"Absolutely not! All students may leave the class only on 11 am! Now go back before you two REALLY get in trouble!" Crowler shrilled and the students ran back for their rooms, snickering along the way.

"Told you it wouldn't work!"

"Last year, who cares!"

"But he's not even supervising us anymore!"

Their voices became distant as the two ran down the hall.

* * *

"Alright class, the written exam is over, now please get up and get in line for the new rare cards."

A loud and exaggerated gasp, followed by squeals.

"They're here?"

"Oh no…"

The doors opened and students stampeded out of their respective rooms. 1st, 2nd and 3rd, all of them made a mad dash for the card shop.

Few remained in their classes, voluntary or not. Chazz for example was voluntary.

"Chazz, Chazz! The new rare cards are here!" Mototani announced.

"So what are you dolts standing around there for? Go fetch." Chazz waved off dismissively, rechecking his papers before submitting.

Matt and Carrie entered Banner's class and found Bastion and Kaye in it, Bastion was shaking Jaden and Syrus awake, while both Carrie and Matt arrived with a horrified look.

"Say you might want to wake up for those cards…" Bastion said, trying to wake the Slifers to no avail.

"Was it that bad for you two?" Kaye asked.

"It was going great until she started humming." Matt gave Carrie a fake sneer who could only glare bag with accentuated eyebags.

"I can't help it, that alarm was too catchy. It occupied my mind for half the exam."

Kaye looked at the two. "Really? Did you really?"

Carrie laughed dismissively. "Of course not, but, I am tired I think I'll just, rest here until it's time for the field test." She said, scooting over the same chair row as Jaden and Syrus.

"The rare cards though…" Matt said, as he too began scooting over, yawning.

"We could… we should get them…"

"Yea… yeah…"

"See this is what you get for studying all night." Kaye gestured at the two of them.

"HWAH!"

Syrus jolted up, making Carrie and Matt jolt in their seats, not that they got up though. Realizing his position amongst poorly rested children, Syrus threw his hands up in defeat. "I flunked didn't I? I'm a complete failure."

"Sy if there was a grade on melodrama, you'd get an A!" Jaden commented, not really sleeping.

"Hey, where'd everyone go?" Syrus asked, seeing the empty chairs and empty tables.

"Off to get new cards probably." Kaye mentioned.

"Yeah… yeah we'll get those…" Matt agreed.

"Yes we are, c'mon, let's get in line." Kaye poked Matt's head. "You're not really sleepy, you actually went to bed unlike her." She poked a thumb at Carrie, blissfully asleep.

"But I am! I… sorta finished early…" Matt sheepishly admitted. "I finished… 30 minutes before it was finished and I got sleepy in the last 3 minutes and I'm still sleepy…"

"Oh sleep later, this line isn't gonna wait for you." Kaye rolled her eyes, but there was a smirk on her. "I heard they're selling cards Kaiba once used."

Matt's eyes opened. "Oh man no way!" He exclaimed, fresh and awake now. Kaye left without another word, just a flick of her head and Matt eagerly followed.

"How come no one told us about them!" Syrus demanded.

"Because everyone wants the best rare cards for themselves." Bastion mentioned as if it was matter-of-factly.

"Y'know… the interdorm duel bit…" Carrie added, rubbing her face as she spoke. "We're… probably not the… best people to get you hyped about it… Bastion and I don't need the new cards."

"Why not?" Syrus asked.

"One errant card and my formulas will be completely thrown off." Bastion stated.

"And I think… I'm all good now…" Carrie said. "Yeah, deck's all good..."

"I'd get going if I were you two." Bastion suggested.

"Yeah my deck wouldn't screw up with one errant card!" Syrus looked at Jaden now, who's all smiles for the idea.

"So let's go!" He said before giving an excited look of his own. "There's nothing like the smell of new cards! Thanks for the tip Bastion! 'Scuse me Carrie."

"Mm ya, ya." She droned as the two Slifers scooted behind her chair. "Hey Bastion, do me a favor and… wake me up…"

"We have time, might as well stay here." The intellectual Ra shrugged as he sat down next to her chair.

* * *

"Oh man this is way too much!" Matt realized as he arrived at the card shack, only to find most if not all of the students swarming the entrance, banging on the metal sheets that barricade as if it'll make it open.

At the outermost layer of this teenage swarm was Alex, the small Slifer struggling to make it past the shell of the mob of students. Expelled, ignored and hopeless, Alex sighed and walked away from the crowd, along with a tall Ra that both Kaye and Matt recognized as their senior. He was tall, with shoulder length black hair with grey streaks and narrow black eyes. The two recognized him as Nikolai Skugga, a quiet person by nature.

"You're not gonna get in line?" Kaye asked.

After a while, mostly out of confusion at some random junior asking him a question, he replied. "Look around, there is no line. This is one big train wreck I don't want to be a part of." With a light Russian accent before swiftly leaving.

"Well he has a point, this is just… impossible." Kaye pursed her lips waving dismissively at the crowd.

"Yeah, I think our decks are just fine…" Matt agreed. "Really wanna see the cards though."

"You could stick around just to see them." Kaye offered.

"Oh cool, you'd wait with me?" Matt beamed at her expectantly.

"Uh I was… about to…" Kaye began. "You know…"

"Wah!" The two heard, followed by the sound of marching.

The students in the mob looked behind them and saw, special forces stomping down the hall, clearing a path for one man, an officer bringing a metal briefcase. Matt on the other hand, saw the small Slifer from before knocked down, picking up his cards, knocked down by the guards clearing the path.

"Oh children!" The officer called out, and while lifting up the briefcase, he seemed to get more cheers. "Looking for these?"

The students cheered, Kaye could swear one of them looked close to crying with joy as they parted for him and he entered the store through the shutters, smirking with the ego of being greeted in such a grandiose way. "Come and get 'em."

"Matt, it's the cards." Kaye looked behind her, only to see Matt preoccupied by Alex's fallen cards.

Yet as soon as they opened the shutters…

"Huh?! Where's the cards?!" They said, faced with an empty briefcase, nothing in it but an envelope of payment.

"Where'd they all go?" Another asked.

"You know the rules, first come first serve." The clerk explained simply.

"Yes, and I was first!" The voice came from a particularly shady figure, tall and reeking of a rancorous, cheesy shadiness. As soon as the shady man said that, the students crowded the case, protesting.

Kaye watched it, not really able to see the center of the crowd, but judging from the commotion and the complaints, she had a good guess. "Guess we're not seeing the cards, someone took them all."

Matt got up from his spot on the floor as Alex scampered off. "Its fine, I don't mind, they're probably not worth it anyway."

"That's a downright lie." Kaye scoffed. "But it was nice of you regardless. Not that helping him would have done anything. Whoever bought all those cards, they're rich and they got in before everyone else."

"What? So a staff? Why would a staff buy cards for the students?" Matt dusted his hands.

"I don't know but I have a pretty good idea who." She frowned at the notion, "C'mon, no use mulling over this."

* * *

Minutes later but not too many…

"C'mon Sy we gotta make tracks!" Jaden announced dashing out of the hall.

"Jay slow down, I'm at my limit!" Syrus shouted back, running as fast has his legs would let him and his stamina.

"Well alright." Jaden agreed instantaneously, doing a jog next to Syrus.

"Now you're just being a wise guy!" Syrus sighed as he continued to run at his speed.

"No I'm seriously waiting for you it's alright! Some of us just don't have legs made for running!" He taunted with a grin.

"Yeah, yeah I'm vertically challenged."

"But we really gotta speed up and get to the card shack before they…" Jaden looked ahead of him and was faced with the empty card shack, no lines, no fuss, no clerk and no new cards or cards at all. "Run out of…"

"They couldn't have, right?" Syrus asked. "No way they'd… run out of cards… right?" He glanced at Jaden who shared the same concerned look as him.

"Yeah… this is a card shack, they gotta have some cards, otherwise it's just a shack." Jaden walked up towards the counter where a clerk was waiting, Sadie, as seen from her nametag, "Excuse me counter girl?"

"Hmm?" Sadie's hum was one that sounded offended by the two not knowing her name, one that is rather visible on her nametag thank you, but she let it slide, the life of a counter/clerk/shopkeeper is tough, they come and go, blowing her name into the wind. This is an action with a consequence she knows well.

"You still have some cards left right?" Jaden asked.

"Of course we have cards left, just regular packs." Sadie (sorry, the counter girl) replied before reaching under the counter to pick up a green pack with the Duel Academy logo on it. With two fingers, she slid it over to Jaden and Syrus. "Here you go."

"We said some not one!" The two exclaimed.

"I'm done for, I slept in the written exam and now I'm gonna fail my duel because I can't upgrade my deck!" Syrus wailed minimally and Jaden gave him a sympathetic smile.

"So take the pack Sy." Jaden said, that smile still on him.

"Really? You'll give me the last pack?"

"It's cool." There's an expression growing on Jaden's face, one almost betraying his genuine intention. But you know what, friends come first. Bros before throwdowns.

"But, you slept through the written test too, what if…" Syrus' brows scrunched, a look of concern on him.

"What if what?"

"What if you fail too?"

Jaden's humble expression grew to one of confidence. "No way, I may flunk and fall every now and then but I NEVER fail."

Their attention turned to the sound of a door to the storeroom opening. "Yoohoo! Auto-club!" Next to Sadie was the heavy-set, not-so-old braided woman with van problems.

"Oh hey it's you!" Jaden greeted cheerfully.

"You know him Miss Dorothy?" Sadie asked with a surprised look on her face.

"Oh yes, he helped me this morning!" Dorothy replied with a smile.

"You work here too?" Jaden asked.

"Oh I don't work here, I own this place!" Dorothy gave him a prideful look. "Cool huh?"

"That's not cool, that's totally sweet!" Jaden complimented.

"Jay how do you know her?" Syrus whispered.

"I think it had something to do with the pistons." Jaden joked.

"Oh, here I have something for you, overheard you two needed cards!" Dorothy waved her hands to grab the two's attention, which caught both their attentions rather successfully. Dorothy gave a knowing, wise old giggle. "Just call it a thank you for helping me!"

* * *

"No way, all the cards are gone?" Carrie asked between chewing.

"Yeah! Turned my back a lil' and poof, all gone with nothing but a check." Matt confirmed.

"Well even if you didn't it wouldn't have made a difference." Kaye crossed her arms. "As I said, the shack opened and an open briefcase with the sealed money was already there."

"Ok fine, sealed money."

"Bastion, you have a good feeling who did this right?" Carrie asked the boy next to her who was reviewing a deck.

"Hmm? Yes, perhaps." Bastion replied absent-mindedly.

"You're not just saying that to spare my feelings right? Because in reality you weren't paying attention to what I've said ever since we left the exam hall?" Carrie seemed to glare at Bastion who finally looked at her.

Humoring her, Bastion looked away briefly, "She believes its Chazz."

"Why him? Mystery check and mystery buyer and a pretty pleased Chazz? But anyway that's what I thought until you said staff." Carrie explained.

"Yeah I don't think Chazz would hide if he can buy cards ahead of everyone." Kaye hummed in agreement.

"What I still don't get is why anyone would get those cards." Bastion mentioned. "Other than the rumors that it was cards used by Seto Kaiba, buying all those cards to build a deck last minute? That would be unwise, as they will have to learn how to use the deck as if they've used it their whole lives."

"All in 45 minutes." Carrie mused. "Any other prodigies than you Bastion?"

"Well there's-" Kaye began yet was cut off by the PA.

**"Attention, will Carrie Robins, Matt Roberts, America Uchimura and Ishiki Erishi come to the dueling stage."**

It said, repeating itself once more and the two Ras in question reluctantly stood up, either out of the fact their conversation was cut short along with the fact that they have to stand up and walk all the way down there.

"Let's just see where it plays out." Matt shrugged.

"Whoever Chazz is going against has an advantage anyway, I doubt anyone can just adapt to a whole new deck last minute." Carrie added.

"Good luck on your tests guys!" Matt called as he and Carrie went down the steps

* * *

In the two stage for Obelisks, one hosted Alexis and her opponent, just finishing, while the other held Geoffrey. The former just finished as her duel, her monster's hologram disappearing while the latter had just activated his duel disk and so did his opponent, a first year named Torrey.

"DUEL!"

**Torrey: 4000**  
**Geoffrey: 4000**

"Here goes..." Torrey drew first, based on the coin flip toss. "I place a monster facedown and two more cards facedown and that's it for my turn." As Torrey narrated his actions, two more cards appeared before the facedown monster, starting from Torrey's center to his right, signaling the end of his turn.

Geoffrey hid before his calm mask, showing no signs of growing wary of the card's placement and drew a card. "I summon Gladiator Beast Dimacari is attack mode." Geoffrey announced as in a shine of blue and purple light came a large, bipedal purple bull equipped with weapons, its kilt blue and red decorated with orange jewels. The bull snorted as he punched his fists together. **(4/****1600****/1200)** "Dimacari, attack his facedown." Geoffrey ordered.

The bull charged, slamming his fist to the facedown. It was Dandylion **(3/300/****300****)** cowering behind its leafy arms as the chain shattered it. Yet the fragments formed two entities, two dandelion puffs, one smiling and the other showing an aggressive expression **2x (1/0/****0****)**.

Geoffrey's silence unnerved Torrey, slightly but still, who was about to explain that it was Dandylion's effect of course, that summoned the two tokens. He feared that Geoffrey is seeing right through him, and that would be his deck's biggest weakness. "And now Dimacari's special effect activates, letting me shuffle him to my deck and summon another Gladiator Beast other than Dimacari."

The ground beneath the bull glowed blue as he descended down from it. A second after it went, the circle changed to green and a green bird with green armor, with white and red accents, soared from the glowing portal. It settled on the ground, flashing its wings **(4/****1500****/800)**. "Meet Gladiator Beast Bestiari. And when he's Special Summoned by the effect of a Gladiator Beast, I can target a spell or trap card and destroy it." He explained as Bestiari flapped his wings, creating twisters. It targeted one of Torrey's card, revealing it to be Swords of Revealing Light. The card shattered. Geoffrey placed a card facedown before taking what Torrey assumed was an idle stance.

Torrey drew a card before simply (albeit secretly nervously) setting two cards down, with Geoffrey noting the gap between one card on the far left and the other cards that are on the center and its right most. "That's all from my turn…"

The Obelisks began to watch on the duel, growing irked by the duel. "He's stalling isn't he?"

"I think so, why else would he play that?"

"Who are these two?"

"I dunno but this duel's kinda drab."

Geoffrey drew his card, ignoring the restless audience. "I summon Gladiator Beast Equeste and set a card facedown." Geoffrey announced as a blue circle appeared this time. From it emerged a centaur, the horse part dark purple while its armors were a blue color while on its horseback was a pair of blue metallic wings. The centaur tapped down on the ground lightly **(4/****1600****/1200)** as a card appeared behind it. "Now both of you, attack the Dandylion puff tokens."

Equeste attacked first, using his wings to jump higher before putting his shield in front of him and crashing towards the Dandylion puff and the creature yelled before breaking into holographic pixels. Bestiari followed after him, yet he didn't bother raising his weapon so much as blowing away the other puff and see it explode to pixels. "And with that, I end my turn."

Torrey breathed in before drawing a card. "Alright… I play Nightmare Steelcage!" one of Torrey's dormant spell cards activated and because of it, a large black cage surrounded the field, dropping in from the sky, with spikes pointing towards and away from Geoffrey on where the horizontal mesh met the vertical mesh. "And then, I play my trap card Destiny Board!"

The audience were changing slowly, one by one whispering amongst themselves as a wispy F appeared out of the trap card, floating in front of the card.

"So THAT'S what he's been up to!"

"Well I guess it is better to take your time with this deck."

"But this is so boring!"

"Shut up you think everything's boring."

Torrey played another spell card, "I play Pot of Greed." The grinning green pot appeared for a moment as Torrey took two cards before shattering. "I play a monster facedown and end my turn."

Geoffrey drew is card and looked at his hand. 'Nothing to destroy cards for now… When it's over, I have to hit hard and fast…' With no signs of thought, Geoffrey took a card and placed it down. "I summon Gladiator Beast Laquari."

In a flaming circle this time, emerged a bipedal tiger clad in red armor. Six metallic pieces floated around the tiger in a circle before each of it spewed out a fire that connected to the other pieces **(4/****1800****/400)**.

"And now I play Colosseum-Cage of the Gladiator Beasts." The ground turned to brown stone and pieces of broken square columns rose from the ground. Blue lines cut through the ground, glowing as they passed and a large white stone, circled by jagged white stone, rose to the center between Torrey and Geoffrey, a golden cross on it, sparkling and releasing an ethereal aura. "That's all for now." He announced as the cage creaked and shuddered a little.

**NIGHTMARE'S STEELCAGE: 1 TURN**

Torrey drew another card. "I activate Spirit Message "I"!" he announced as another wispy letter appeared in front of the spell card. "Now I set a card facedown and end my turn."

Geoffrey would not be one to admit it, but this duel is dragging on a with an irritating pattern, he thought as he drew. "I play Magical Mallet." He replaced all 5 cards with 5 new cards from his deck and ended his turn with a shocking, "I pass."

The crowd gasped and the onlookers murmured among themselves and the cage lifted as Nightmare Steelcage broke.

"You know this guy Alexis?" Danny asked, she and Zane finally finishing their own tests and opted to watch.

"Yeah we have some classes together." Alexis nods before looking at the stance the duelist has. "I don't think he's as trapped as he looks."

"Hmm?" Danny's eye seems to question at that.

"She means that with a deck like his, some cards are better in the deck than out." Zane summarized curtly. "He's on to something."

"Definitely." Alexis agrees.

Torrey drew another card. "I play Spirit Message "N"!" He announced as another letter appeared as a wispy lazy haze but made no further moves, signaling the end of his turn.

As Geoffrey drew a card, a card on Torrey's side of the field flipped up. "I activate Battle Mania! This turn, all of your monsters will have to attack mine."

"That's asinine, their effects activate when they attack." He muttered but due to the trap, his monsters became surrounded in an aura a little much like their own usual battle auras and roared twice as fiercely as one by one they went up to strike. The first was Laquari, the tiger roared before charging over with his flames and attacked the facedown with a firey claw, revealing itself to be Marshmallon. The tiger's claws made perfect 3 slices on the marshmallow monster's body, yet it simply mended itself with a jiggle.

"And when Marshmallon's flipped up, you take 1000 points of damage!" Torrey said, a little livelier and more confident now. The marshmallow monster jiggled up and down, before bouncing a little more fiercely and bounced over to Geoffrey's side of the field. It pounced at him, the upside down mouth opened to reveal a sharp set of teeth that took a bite of Geoffrey's duel disk.

**Torrey: 4000**  
**Geoffrey: 3000**

Equeste attacked next, the same shield strike it was going for but again it had no effect. Yet when Bestiari attacked another one of Torrey's traps activated. "I activate Mirror Force, destroying all of your monsters in attack position!" and an invisible force reflected back Bestiari's wind attack, making it grow in size and sharp winds swept the three of them away and they exploded into pixels, leaving Geoffrey's field barren and the crowds to grow in the rising intensity of the duel. As usual, Geoffrey was unfazed by it.

"If he wants to hit Torrey, he'll have to get past that Marshmallon!"

"Kind of hard don't you think? The thing's indestructible to battle damage!"

"No way is Torrey really gonna win? Like, him against Geoffrey of all people?"

After the pixelated carnage and a facedown from Torrey which took his entire hand, Geoffrey took his turn. "I play Double Summon, allowing me to summon twice this turn." He revealed the card he had face down, turning out to be a bluff as it was a spell not a trap. "With it, I summon Gladiator Beast Lanista and Hoplomus."

Two light portals appeared from the ground, this time another bird warrior in green carrying a red spear, and the other being a rhinoceros in thin yellow armor, with several floating pieces surrounding him **(4/****1800-1900****/1200), (4/****700-800****/2100).** "Hoplomus, attack Marshmallon."

"I don't think so! Negate Attack!" Torrey declared as the trap card flipped up. "I know your monsters, their effect activates when they attack!" Geoffrey could see that Torrey's excitement was a little too high, probably from the idea of actually beating someone. Not on his watch.

"Irrelevant. I place a card facedown and end my turn."

Torrey drew his card, "I activate another Pot of Greed." He announced feebly as he drew another two pairs of cards. "And guess what, there's another!" and he drew two more cards before clearly growing a cheerful expression. "I play Spirit Message "N"! And finally I play Messenger of Peace!"

After the wispy N appeared in front of the spell card, a halo of light appeared around the field, pulsing from the card rhythmically. "With this in play, as long as I keep paying lifepoints, neither of us can attack with monsters above 1500 attack points!"

The crowd talked amongst themselves as Torrey declared the end of his short yet eventful turn and Geoffrey drew his own card. "Hmph, I play De-Spell to get rid of Messenger of Peace. That was pretty short lived, and Hoplomus could've still attacked." The card released a green mist that targeted the spell card and pierced it and the card exploded causing the halo to stop. "And now with nothing left, Hoplomus, attack Marshmallon!" He gruffly declared.

The rhino charged at the Marshmallon, only to of course be thrown back, yet its large mass made it skid backwards. "Lanista, attack too." The bird warrior soared to the sky without question, its spear pointed to the marshmallow as it dove down to the ground. The spear went through, but with no effect whatsoever. Lanista flew back to his first spot as portals appeared under the two Gladiator Beasts. "And now I get to tag out these two for Gladiator Beast Darius and Murmillo."

From a golden portal on the ground, and a blue one next to it, a purple horse in red armor rose from the golden portal **(4/****1700-1900****/300-500)**,while water rushed out from the second one and an aquatic fish-like warrior rushed out like The One **(3/****800-1000****/400-600)**.

**Colosseum-Cage of the Gladiator Beasts: 2 COUNTERS**

"I'll start it off with Murmillo. When he's tagged in, I get to destroy a face up monster on the field." Murmillo controlled the water that was still rising up, forcing the torrent to the Marshmallon. The creature, which would've withstood more hits, exploded as the water brined around it which made Torrey grimace. "More news from Darius, his effect allows me to destroy a spell or trap card on the field. Guess what?" The horse neighed before swinging its chain and throwing it to the Destiny Board, the blade pierced the wispy letter effortlessly and caused a terrible shriek as one by one, the spirit messages wailed as well. All at once, the letters disappeared without grandiose or any trace.

More importantly, Torrey was left bare, his hand nothing but what Geoffrey assumes is the final L. "Next turn, it's over." Torrey dropped to his knees, the anxiety taking over as he stammered. "Your move."

Torrey stammered, nervously going for his next card before his eyes stared at it. It was a trap card he couldn't even use for using up all of his hand. "I… I… I pass…"

Geoffrey drew a card yet glanced to see it was a spell card, perhaps later, way later, like in another duel perhaps. "I summon Gladiator Beast Retiari." From another blue portal, a green lizard in black and gold gauntlet and greaves with a black and gold helmet jumped out, in one hand a white sash that wrapped around the lizard's body and in the other a silver trident. The reptile snarled as he landed **(3/****1200-1400****/800)**. "Gladiator Beasts, attack directly."

The audience could scarcely look at the one handed onslaught. One by one the Gladiator Beasts attacked Torrey until eventually…

**Torrey: 0**  
**Geoffrey: 3000**

When the arena cleared, Geoffrey immediately walked away, Alexis waiting in the wings.

"Was dragging it on like that really necessary?" Alexis raised a brow, her sides completely free of curious on looking seniors who moved on to more action paced duels. "You had him by the third card!"

"Of course it was." The blonde scuffed his duel disk. "They need to know what they're dealing with."

"Someone with a flair for dramatics?"

"Someone who's here to win."

"So dramatic." She lightly teased as the two went to the bleachers.

"Hey, hey what'd we miss?" Carrie asked as she and Matt sat down on where the two were before their duel.

"Only one of the sickest duels I've ever seen!" Jaden exclaimed. "Tell me you heard the cheers."

"How could we not? They kept gasping and murmuring at every move we didn't make." Matt added as he sat down and exhaled in relief. "Man Ishiki did not make it easy."

"I… I felt bad for America… he looked so confused…" Carrie admitted as she placed her deck back to her deck case.

"Why wouldn't he, you have what might as well be never before seen stuff!" Jaden pointed out. "What's up with that anyway, how'd you get them?"

"I'll explain later but look Kaye's starting!"

As Kaye entered the field, they fail to notice another Ra entering another field, Nikolai, going against Beauregard. What they fail to see even more is the small Alexander Faust, about to duel a fellow Slifer.

* * *

Three duels later, cheers erupted from the crowds, without rhythm and at strange fluctuations but all in all they passed their duels. Kaye won her duel and so did Nikolai, Alex winning just barely but a win is a win. The Ra girl returned to her seats in a holler of cheers while Nikolai slinked out of the arena and its appropriate, its lunch after all, some students are starting to get up and leave at this point as demonstrated as Daryn, food in hand, returning and trying to walk back up the seats, though some people seem to be pushing their way down.

"Just what was Dimitri thinking? Just because he has the cards doesn't mean he has the skills!" Matt commented as he stood up.

"There was no way Dimitri can emulate her style." Kaye added. "Carrie what's your two cents on this?"

"Uh… I uh…" She sheepishly looked around, slinking in her chair. "I never uh… really seen Mai Valentine duel…"

"You WHAT!?" The two exclaimed.

"We'll have to rectify that. Just what kinda duelist are you!" Matt and Kaye both grabbed her by the wrist.

"A sheltered one!" She retaliated and the three bickered lightly until the speaker crackeld to life.

"Attention, will Jaden Yuki come to the dueling stage."

The group fell silent. "Just Jaden?" Carries questioned. "Who's he dueling?"

Everyone turned to Jaden, who shrugged his shoulder easily and got up, dusting himself. "No better way to find out than to jump right in. Wish me luck!"

And he swiftly left in a mass of good lucks from the group.

'Huh?' Alexis wondered as she ignored the two barely speaking seniors making small comments. She saw Chazz, and it looks like he's getting up and walking down. 'Where's he going…?'

"Something wrong?" Geoffrey muttered.

"No, at least I hope so…"

The crowd gasped and so did Jaden when he saw that on the field arriving at around the same time as he was Chazz, the Obelisk smug on his end of the field.

"No way!" Matt gasped as he glued himself back to his seat.

Daryn immediately skidded onto the seat. "I didn't miss anything right!?" He asked.

"I'd say you came in just in time." Kaye too sat back down as other students returned when they left, murmuring and speaking amongst themselves.

Jaden looked at the sidelines, seeing the teachers. "You mean I'm dueling Chazz?" He asked as the Obelisk himself got ready.

"That's right Jaden, since you always talk such a big game, I thought I'd pull some strings for you so you get the challenge you deserve." Crowler replied smugly before pointing to Chazz. "So congratulations! You'll be dueling one of the top ranked students of our school, what an honor! I sure hope you were able to snag a lot of today's rare cards so that your deck's up to snuff!" Jaden hid a grimace as Crowler gave a triumphant huff. "What's wrong? Won't do it? You can kiss that grade goodbye!"

Syrus' brows knitted. 'This is bad…' He thought to himself.

"He can't possibly agree to this right?" Alexis asked Geoffrey elsewhere Geoffrey shrugged and looked towards the arena. "I mean, he's rash but not that rash, right?"

Meanwhile, "No way is he serious?" Carrie asked Bastion.

"Only a cavalier fool would agree." Bastion replied.

"I'll do it!" Jaden valiantly responded and the kids could only jolt and comically sigh in disbelief at Jaden's response. He walked more confidently and wholeheartedly too. "All right Chazz, get your game on! Now we'll get to finish what we started at Obelisk Arena."

"Hmm yes in front of the whole school too," Crowler mockingly said, "Where everyone can watch."

"Yeah, watch you get slammed by me." Chazz snipped (Jaden sighed) as they inserted their decks into their Duel Disks.

"Let's duel!"

**Chazz: 4000**  
**Jaden: 4000**

"No excuses Chazz!" Jaden declared as he drew his five cards and Chazz did the same.

"Bring it Slifer Slacker!"

"Oh it's brought!" Jaden grinned, drawing his next card.

"Coo!"

"Well if it isn't my favorite furry friend." He said as he put Kuriboh in his hand with the rest of his cards 'Kuriboh, you're in for a treat, because we're about to rain down some serious skills on Chazz.' "You remember this guy don't you Chazz? From our first match? Elemental Hero Clayman!" Jaden announced as the monster was summoned in defense mode **(4/800/****2000****)** "And he'd like to get reacquainted."

"Not after he sees what I've got for him. Don't think for a second that overgrown pile of pebbles can stand a chance against me Jaden… or against this!" He drew a card and glanced at it before smirking. 'Appreciate the rare cards Crowler.' He placed the card in the spell and trap slot. "You've seen this before, haven't you Jaden, I play Magical Mallet!"

"... What's that?" Jaden questioned.

Chazz gritted his teeth, visibly irritated. "Its a redo, all the cards in my hand that I don't want, I put back in my deck." Chazz explained as he put all but one card back in his deck. He continued drawing the exact amount of card. "Then I shuffle and redraw. Pretty cool don't you think?"

* * *

"Whoa, how?! A rare card on the first draw?" Questioned Syrus with disbelief.

"And a very dangerous one at that. Now Chazz can essentially pick which cards he want and which cards he doesn't." Bastion elaborated.

"Hmm..." Kaye mused.

"Something on your mind?"

"He's looking for something, either a card or some kind of set up for a strategy." She deducted. "Guess we'll find out soon enough."

Meanwhile, Alexis looked to Geoffrey, "How did you get Magical Mallet?" She asked.

"I got lucky."

* * *

"I haven't gotten to the best part!" Chazz declared as he used another Magical Mallet as the crowd gasped. "See Jaden, I get to reshuffle Magical Mallet too. If I draw it again like I just did, I get to play it again and again." Chazz returned one card and redrew one more card.

"And that comes in handy when I'm looking for this! V-Tiger Jet!" From the card came a machine which unfolded into a yellow and teal tiger with claws and wings. "Sharpen your claws for attack mode!" **(4/****1600****/1800)**

"And there's a lot more where that came from! Check out the magic of Frontline Base!" Chazz announced as he inserted the spellcard. "It lets me summon another level 4 or below monster this turn, and I have just the one! I play W-Wing Catapult in attack mode!" The machine in question was a blue-purple hue, with, as its name suggests, double the engines **(4/****1300****/1500)**. "Start your engines! Now merge!"

W-Wing Catapult jetted off to the sky, a compartment opening up and V-Tiger Jet followed after it, mechanisms locking in the air and missile compartments opening up. "Alright! The VW-Tiger Catapult!" Chazz announced again and the audience gasped as the machine landed in front of Chazz **(6/****2000****/2100)**. "But wait I'm not done yet, because he still has his special ability!"

"Well that's not good." Jaden uttered.

"Give me a break, is this guys turn gonna end sometime this century?" Syrus irked.

"By sending a card to the graveyard, I can force one of your monsters into attack mode!" Clayman rose from his initial position and his card shattered **(4/****800****/2000)**. "And with this heat seeking blitz from my Tiger Catapult, your lifepoints are toast!"

Tiger Catapult fired off a barrage of missiles, all of them heading for Clayman whose cries were drowned by the explosions of the missile as the Elemental Hero shattered to pixels.

The crowd gave "Ooh"s and "Aah"s

**Chazz: 4000**  
**Jaden: 2800**

"My goodness! Perhaps Jaden can't play with the big boys after all!" Crowler mocked a gasp as he practically pressed himself on the window. "I guess he's not as good as everyone thinks."

"I'll finish up with one card facedown." Chazz finished as he set a card down and it appeared on the field.

"Yeah, you go on and finish up, because I'm just getting warmed up!" Jaden said as he drew his card. "Heres a guy who can really turn up the heat, Elemental Hero Sparkman... in defense mode!" The familiar blue and yellow electric themed hero appeared from his card with the spark and gusto of a hero **(4/1600/****1400****)**, he knelt protectively over Jaden's side of the field. "And I'll throw down a facedown."

* * *

"Not much else he can do with al the new rares Chazz seems to have." Bastion explained amongst the gasps of the audience.

"Its just not fair!" Syrus agreed.

"This is a complete mismatch!" Alexis expressed, "How can he fight back when he doesn't know what he's fighting."

"Knowing is half the battle." Geoffrey agreed.

"Well then you two kids should know that duels hardly ever go as planned." Danny added as she arrived with Zane in tow.

"Still, these are completely brand new." Alexis huffed.

* * *

"Ready for round 2 you Slifer Slime? Well, X-Head Cannon is and thanks to Frontline Base, so is Z-Metal Tank!" The first machine was purple and yellow, with a spiked sphere for a lower half and two cannons protruding from its shoulder **(4/****1800****/1500)**. The second is yellow with some teal accents, with the appearance of a crab and its main body have a single eye for vision **(4/****1500****/1300)**.

"V, W, X, Z, he's missing one thing." Kaye realized.

"Uh... yeah Y... But what's-" Carrie counted yet was interrupted by the gasps and realizations of the others.

"I play my facedown card, Call of the Haunted! In case you slept through that class too, it lets me bring a monster back from the graveyard. And I choose..." In a spark of light, a bright red metallic dragon appeared, looking more giving a metallic roar as it swooped around before finally landing near the other machines.

"No way!" Syrus cried out.

"He has it!" Bastion added.

"That's right, it's Y-Dragon Head!" **(4/****1500****/1600)** Chazz announced cockily. "I discarded it with my Tiger Catapult's special ability! And next, I'll combine them to create the XYZ-Dragon Cannon!" X, Y and Z soared to the air, interlocking with one another with X at the top, Y in the midsection and Z on the bottom **(8/****2800****/2600)**.

"And just like that, Chazz has two mosnters out with over 2000 attack points each." Bastion said.

"But wait Jaden, there's more!" Jaden gasped and so this the audience. "Actually, less. They say two heads are better than one, but I have to disagree. Especially when the one in question is the one, the only, ultimate V to Z Dragon Catapult Cannon!" The two machines unlocked then relocked with each other, forming a humanoid and large machine that was an amalgamation of all of Chazz's monsters **(8/****3000****/2800)**. "Makes your Sparkman look like a heap of spark plugs doesn't it? Or at least, it did." Sparkman then promptly spun out of existence.

"My Sparkman!" Jaden gasped and the audience followed.

"Oh, I'm sorry, didn't I mention V to Z's special ability? He allows me to remove one card on your side of the field, once per turn." He snickered. "And if you think that's impressive, wait until you see its attack, an attack that wil strike your life points directly!"

"Not so fast Chazz, I have a trap, A Hero Emerges!" Jaden announced as his facedown flipped up and shone as the audiece gave a sigh of relief.

"Blast!" Crowler grimaced.

"A Hero what?' Chazz mockingly asked.

"Emerges, as in emerges onto the field. You see, now you have to choose a card from my hand, and if it's a monster card, I get to play it. So take your pick Chazz." Jaden explained as he held out his hand.

"Yeah, yeah whatever, the far right."

Jaden looked at the card in question, "Sweet!" He declared as he placed the card on his duel disk. "Elemental Burstinatrix, in defense mode." The fire themed female hero took a defensive kneel as she appeared on Jaden's field **(3/1200/****800****).**

"That's what you think you Slifer Slacker! When Dragon Catapult Cannon attacks, I get to choose your monster's mode! And I choose attack mode." Burstinatrix was forced to stand as Dragon Catapult Cannon began charging the guns on its chestt. "Which means, not only will she get zapped, but your life points will too!" Dragon Catapult Cannon fired, shattering Burstinatrix and hitting Jaden too.

**Chazz: 4000**  
**Jaden: 1000**

* * *

The crowd gave different reactions, initally gasps, shocks that Jaden's points had dropped without a single scratch on Chazz then followed by uproars of different emotions, rooting for either duelists or outraged that Jaden had to duel Chazz.

"Jaden!" Daryn and Syrus exclaimed.

"Oh no!" Kaye and Matt gasped.

"Oh wow... that was pretty... _Mean_?" Carried joked, though she delivered it nervously as Bastion just stared at her as the others tried to figure out what she said.

"Not the time and place." He stated.

"Right, sorry."

* * *

"Aww, what's the matter Jaden? Having some test anxiety?" Chazz taunted, chuckling as he continued taunting. "I knew scum like you didn't belong at this academy, but don't worry, because it'll all be over soon!"

"No way Chazz, I still have a whole army of monsters in my deck ready to get at you. This isn't over, it's just barely starting!" Jaden declared as he drew a card. When he looked at it, he gasped.

_He thought of Dorothy, slyly laughing in front of him and Syrus. "Now I know we said we ran out of cards but I did hide away a few."_

_"That's not a safe business practice Dorothy!" The counter girl reminded._

_"Oh I know, I know but its just one pack!" Dorothy took out the single pack before giving it to Jaden with a smile. "Here, for polite young students like yourself! Maybe you can put them to some good use! When you're not fixing old cars that is."_

_Jaden could only stare at the pack in shock. "That'll be 1.99 please." The counter girl added._

"What do you think Winged Kuriboh?" Jaden asked as the monster cooed in agreement. "Well, all right, if you say so, let's do it! I summon Winged Kuriboh, in defense mode!" The little Kuriboh with white wings appeared as the crowds squealed as how cute it is. **(1/300/****200****)**.

"And I'll throw down a face-down too." Jaden concluded as the facedown card appeared. "That's it." He said with ease.

"That's it?" Syrus asked. "That's all? All he's been playing is defense."

"Can't you feel it though?" Daryn asked. "He's setting something up, probably with Kuriboh and his facedown."

'I sure hope Jaden knows what he's doing...' Alexis thought as the other three Obelisks leaned in closer, drawn in by the duel.

"That's all huh? Good, because now, I get to cook that Kuriboh and I like mine well done. There's about to be a fried furball on the field you loser!" Chazz said.

"You don't scare me." Jaden retorted.

"No big deal, I don't have to, that's his job." Chazz scoffed as he looked straight towards Kuriboh. "Dragon Catapult Cannon, attack!" Chazz ordered as the monster fired up the cannons on its chest and fired.

"Once that Kuriboh is gone Jaden will be completely defenseless!" Syrus yelled over the crowd's uproar.

"Good thing Kuriboh negates all damage this round!" Daryn sighed.

'Alright, secret weapon time!' Jaden thought with a giddy smirk. "I sacrifice two cards and activate..."

"WHERE DID HE GET THAT!" Crowler screeched and the crowd gasped as a bright light engulfed Kuriboh.

"Transcendant Wings!" Kuriboh was not armored, the wings now longer and more angellic and a tail made of the same gold armor now trailed the furry monster **(10/300/****200****)** and the Kuriboh cooed.

"It can't be!" Chazz gasped as The Winged Kuriboh deflected Dragon Catapult Cannon's attack by folding its wings.

"Oh it be, Transcendant Wings has evolved Winged Kuriboh into a level 10 monster! And its better too!" Kuriboh still gave its innocent 'Kuri, kuri' coo despite its helmet making it look as if its glaring down Chazz from the gaps of its wings. "By sacrificing itself, Kuriboh destroys all monsters in attack mode and deflects their attack points back as damage to you! Kuriboh, why don't you go on ahead and show him how it works!" Jaden requested with a triumphant laugh as the Kuriboh cooed ethereally and the light got more and more intense until...

When the light faded, Dragon Catapult Cannon was gone and so was Winged Kuriboh.

**Chazz: 1000**  
**Jaden: 1000**

"In one move, Jaden evened the odds!" Carrie cheered.

"That's not all, Chazz doesn't have that much of a turn left!" Matt pointed out as Chazz made no more moves.

"Lucky punk." Chazz growled and gritted his teeth.

"Lucky?" Jaden interrupted, Chazz surprised Jaden heard him. "Nah, I just happen to have a soft spot for old ladies. But not for you Chazz, and that's too bad, 'cuz with a 1000 lifepoints left and my turn coming up, all I need is the right monster and you'll be finished! Here goes... Something!" Jaden drew his card and looked at it, humming in approval.

"Hmm... Yeah! I summon Elemental Hero Avian!" The crowd grew more intense as the green winged her with exactly 1000 attack points appeared **(4/****1000****/1000)**. "Attack directly!"

The hero took to the air before swooping at Chazz and scratching him, bringing his lifepoints straight to zero and the Obelisk fell to his knees, eyes wide with disbelief.

**Chazz: 0**  
**Jaden: 1000**

The already excited crowd continued screaming in excitement, hollering with approval.

"Jaden did it!" Syrus cheered.

"He really did!" Carrie added.

"That was nuts!" Matt added.

"How did Jaden beat Chazz with all those rare cards!" Crowler slipped. "It simply can't be!"

"Rare cards?" Chancellor Sheppard questioned, though mirthfully, a knowing in his tone. Crowler flinched. "What do you mean Crowler?" The teacher, flabberghasted and at a loss for words, ran off as Sheppard laughed lightly.

Back at the duel stage, Jaden waved cheerfully at the crowd who were still clapping and cheering. "That's game." He declared with his signature pose towards Chazz, still on the ground. "We'll duel again." Jaden smiled and winked but Chazz gritted his teeth.

"We will." He snarked determinedly.

Syrus, Bastion and Carrie had bolted down to congratulate him when Chancellor Sheppard disrupted the celebration. He cleared his throat. "That was well played Jaden, never in the history of our reverred academy has a Slifer dueled an Obelisk in these exams." He started his speech. "Jaden, not only did you hold your own but, you won! Your courage over overwhelming odds is inspiring. With pride I believe it is appropriate to promote you to Ra Yellow! Good job!"

"Ra Yellow?!" Syrus exclaimed. "You're the best Jaden!"

Jaden laughed. "I do what I can!"

"Well Jaden, as a student of Ra Yellow, I'll be the first to welcome you to Ra Yellow." Bastion said while Carrie coughed, elbowing her fellow Ra. "Ah, yes, we."

"Yeah welcome to the team!" Carrie cheered

As the crowd cheered and Carried smacked Jaden's back enthusiastically, the ex-Slifer laughing and Bastion smiling approvingly, Syrus looked around to see the crowd, all cheering still as confetti fell. _'Ra Yellow... I knew Jaden wouldn't stay in Slifer for long! I hate to see him go but I know its for the best... I hope we can still be friends...'_

* * *

That evening in the Slifer dorm...

"Okay, how 'bout this, "Roomate wanted, no one named Chazz, rare cards is a plus." Eh?" Chumley pitched, yet Syrus remained silent, seated mopingly on the one desk that the three shared. "If you're gonna help with this sign how 'bout doing something constructive like making me grilled cheese... Oh, maybe Daryn can be our new roomate."

"Sorry Chumley, not in the mood." Syrus sighed. "He didn't even come over to say goodbye..."

"Or pick up his stuff." Chumley raised a brow at Syrus.

"Hey what's up!" Syrus turned his head to face Jaden, who was smiling as usual, removing his shoes, the door still open.

"Jaden?! What are you doing here!" Syrus cried out.

"Well I wanted to say congrats on passing your field test. Also, in case you've forgotten live here!" Jaden announced and Syrus looked at him confused. "Sure Ra Yellow's nice with its clean sheets, lack of cockroaches, warm meals and spiffy blazers, but without you Syrus its just not my home!"

"Hey!" Chumley added.

"You too Chumley."

"Oh! Really?!" Syrus said before hugging Jaden, eyes teary. "I thought I lost you forever!

"Whoa, chill out."

"And now I'm never letting you go! Jay c'mon just a couple more hugs!"

"Its not the hugs its the waterworks!" Jaden laughed, pushing the immovable Syrus away. "At least red doesn't stain as much as yellow!"

"Thought I heard a ruckus, you staying here Jay?" The two turned to see Daryn still standing at the open door.

"Daryn hey!"

"Hey yourself, I'm heading to the girl's side, Miss Hibiki set up a feast for everyone." Daryn informed.

"Did you hear that Sy...?" Jaden asked and Syrus nodded.

"Whoa!" Daryn cried out as Jaden and Syrus ran past him.

"C'mon!" Jaden called out, laughing as he ran.

* * *

**The song in the title is "Easy (switch screens) by Son Lux ft. Lorde"! You should listen to it its very nice c:!**

**Introducing…. ALEXANDER FAUST! By Shiro4th (I'm so sorry he got knocked down) and NIKOLAI SKUGGA by Kaen Neko! I wanted to introduce them but I can't seem to make my head think of a duel this chapter (I low key hate this chapter) I'll make them duel soon!**

**I really just want to formally apologize honestly. I literally graduated highschool before uploading FUCKING CHAPTER 4 OF THIS FANFIC.**


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